It's Springtime in My Backyard

by Karl Curtis

Kesey College wants no part of the bad publicity that could follow when a co-ed is found dead on campus, so the instructions to student newspaper editor Mark Magnuson are clear: write about something... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1595980180
• ISBN13: 9781595980182
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Goblin Fern Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Age Range: 4 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 7

Customer Reviews

An entertaining little ditty that will play well to Midwestern audiences

Karl Curtis is a Wisconsin native (one of our own) who hails from Beloit College and presently lives in Verona, Wisconsin, just outside of Madison. He has degrees in English and Government, and while he was at B.C. he was among the original editors of the Beloit Fiction Journal, now a national forum for short stories. He presently edits a community newspaper in Verona. In his first mystery, Karl writes about fictional Kesey College, where a co-ed has apparently committed suicide. Mark Magnuson, is the editor of the campus newspaper, and when the higher-ups call him in and order him to censor any stories in the paper about the incident, Mark becomes suspicious. A call from the deceased girl's father and an offer of $10,000 gives Mark the incentive to look into the case, and his considerable knowledge of mysteries acts as a guide. But he must get around the campus cop, Harney, who has orders to keep the suicide story alive: "'You might as well tell me right out,' Harney said as we were walking from one building to the next. 'You're still not snooping around about this Darcy Redwine suicide thing, are you?' 'I told you! I lost my textbook this afternoon. I went to Fairchild's office to see if I could find it. The door was open. I took a quick look inside, and that's when you showed up. If you don't believe me, call Avis Myerson. I was at her office about fifteen minutes ago looking for the same thing.'" Curtis infuses this tale with all the swagger of a college student's fresh perspective into a tainted environment of institutional public relations. Mark Magnuson is the perfect "everyman" college student, although he does have unusual access for the benefit of the story. Still, Curtis leads the reader through a tangled maze which ends in a neat little package. Magnuson's saucy relationship with fiance Rachel spices up the story, as does his scuffles with the powers that be. All in all, THE LIBERAL ART OF MURDER is an entertaining little ditty that will play well to Midwestern audiences, who are all too familiar with the culture of undergraduates who are struggling against the odds to make it through school. A big thumbs up! Shelley Glodowski Senior Reviewer

The Liberal Art of Murder

The Liberal art of Murder was to me a very good book to read sitting in an easy chair and a cup of tea at my side. I was surprised at how well it was written considering this is a first book for the Author. Mark Magnuson shows his stuff when he comes across a murder that the college is trying to hide. He couldn't stomach the thought of letting a murderer get away scot free. Through trial and error he picks his way tO the murderer. Many parts of the book gave me a good chuckle. Looking forward to hopefully another book by the Author Karl Curtis.

The Liberal Art of Murder

I picked up The Liberal Art of Murder on a Friday afternoon, planning to read it over the weekend. The single, vast mistake I made was opening the book to take a look at the first few pages on the walk home; I spent the next so-many hours with my nose in the novel like a regular bookworm. Meet Mark Magnuson, a typical college fraternity student, with desperate hopes of passing tomorrow's Shakespeare exam. He is the editor of his school's newspaper who - when a girl in his class is found dead at the base of the science building - receives a phone call from the deceased's father. He asks Mark to put an advertisement in the school newspaper, offering a reward of $10,000 to anyone who can prove his daughter's death was not her own doing. Despite the fact that the college administration has given Mark strict orders to keep the girl's death out of the paper, he doesn't have the heart to turn down the advertisement, leaving Mark to figure the death out himself or explain to a heartbroken man that he has no authority to run the ad. Mark, along with his fiancé Rachel, carry the novel at a quick pace. The dialog is entertaining and clever, and clues lead to one another in a quick-witted, domino-like plot. As a narrator, Mark keeps nothing from the reader, which allows amateur sleuths to follow along and attempt to beat him tot he murderer. By the end of this novel, he has teachers filing harassment complaints against him, classmates picking fights with him in between classes, and the college administration threatening to pull his academic loan. The Liberal Art of Murder is a charming, fast-paced mystery novel that will keep any reader awake until the very last page.