The Death of a Constant Lover: A Nick Hoffman Mystery (Walker Mystery)

Hoffman teaches in the university's EAR (English, American Studies, Rhetoric) department and is very popular with his students. However, he has just turned 40 and is seriously worried about getting tenure. Also, his supervisors tend to view him as an under-published scholar, and, with some justification, a walking crime zone. The truth is that Nick attracts murder like a magnet. This time out, a student named Jesse Benevento--son of a history professor--is stabbed to death before Nick's very eyes during a campus riot. Nick and his novelist lover, Stefan Borowski, are sucked into a case that turns even uglier when a second murder occurs. As Nick struggles to solve the murders, his colleagues whine and bicker, a graduate student stalks him, and more violence erupts on campus.

If you like the way Raphael puts the camp into campus, his two previous titles, The Edith Wharton Murders and Let's Get Criminal, are both available in paperback. --Dick Adler

Product Description

But I am glad I read CONSTANT LOVER. In fact I find it the superior entry of the series so far (I've got two more to go
before I can set a final tally). Yes, Nick/Raphael still shows off every chance he gets (why, he can quote Henry James verbatim,
years after reading him - can you?), but he leavens the pretension with references to pop culture. And there are plenty of other
compensations here as well. The characterizations, while veering towards exaggeration (I'm talking about supporting characters
now), are uniformly good, even compelling. The mystery is genuinely interesting, exciting, and tension-racked. And the little
scenes of lovers Nick and Stefan at home are fun to read (I especially love their dinners, composed of exotic, delicious
sounding meals). But most of all I love Hoffman's barbs at the present state of academia - the backstabbing, the boredom, the
pretension. For Hoffman, academia is a world where the professors hate books, hate their students, and hate each other and
are there not out of love of learning or teaching but to fortify their own lofty positions in the Ivory Tower. And the
administrators are even bigger cads. As a university teacher I can truthfully verify that, yes, for the sake of fiction, Nick/Raphael exaggerates some but not by much.

Although the reviews for LITTLE MISS EVIL and BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE are mixed, I am looking forward to
what Nick Hoffman gets himself into next.


Fine novel about academia with mysterious deaths to solve   May 29, 2002
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

In addition to crafting an intricate plot (I didn't know "whodunit"), Lev Raphael's third Nick Hoffman novel delivers entertaining insights into the making, canonizing, selling, and teaching of literature and micro- and macropolitics in and around a multiversity. He also provides interesting examples of building and sustaining gay and Jewish identities. Reading Raphael will probably lead to reading or rereading several novels by Edith Wharton, who was Raphael's research specialization, and is also Nick Hoffman's -- at what is turning into the State University of Murder around him in English/American Studies/ Rhetoric amalgamated department at SUM.


Academic satire series acquires darker edge   September 3, 2000
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

If you can't go home again, you can always return for a visit or two. Self-described recovering academic Lev Raphael left university teaching for a full-time writing career. In between producing more literary works -- a novel, a collection of short stories and an analysis of Edith Wharton's fiction -- he's also written three witty mysteries skewing the academic world he left.

His comic alter ego, Nick Hoffman, came to the State University of Michigan to teach classes in the English, American Studies and Rhetoric Department and to be with Stefan, his partner. He also wants to make tenure. But his sharp tongue, lack of allies and preference for teaching over research hurts his chances enough if it weren't for all the bodies he keeps discovering.

By the time Raphael's third book opens, Hoffman's career is foundering and sinking fast. His involvement as amateur detective has brought unfavorable publicity to the university, and his chances darken further by simply being within eyeshot of a murder -- this time of a young man killed during a melee between a campus preacher and a group of students.

"The Death of a Constant Lover" -- the title is a reference to 19th-century English novelist Benjamin Constant --is more a novel of university life and politics than a murder mystery. The investigation moves in fits and starts as Hoffman finds himself also dealing with other problems: death threats are being sent to his office mate, a woman hired to fulfill SUM's diversity quota, and the effect on his relationship with Stefan when he is dropped by his publisher.

Raphael's third book is slightly darker than his first two. Hoffman's joie de vive is dampened by the violence around him, making "Death of a Constant Lover" not so much a darker book -- we're not talking about James Ellroy here -- but simply not as bright and vivacious than the first two books. That's not a criticism so much as an observation that Raphael has put his finger on a key problem with the detecting genre. Death is serious business, and cracking jokes like Noel Coward around the body doesn't ring true. And yet, some sense of humor is needed to keep one from turning Gothic. Homicide detectives and crime reporters tend to develop a callous form that can be shocking to those who The tradeoff here is that Raphael has a sure grasp of his leading characters, and "Constant Lover" is a deeper and more thoughtful mystery that approaches the depth of P.D. James or Martha Grimes.


A must read!   February 7, 2000
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

Delightfully witty with just enough of a mystery edge to make even the most ardent mystery novel officiando interested in the plot twists, Lev Raphael has woven yet another skillful installment in the life (and deaths) of Nick Hoffman. Raphael's depiction of American academia is, perhaps painfully, right on the money. He captures not only the politics of American higher education, but also some of its more colorful characters. Yes, the plot's good: all of his novels thus far have exhibited the nice twists and turns one expects--wants--from a murder mystery novel. However, Raphael goes beyond that and peoples his novels with wonderful characters who bring life and wit to the novel. His are not plodding sleuth sagas. Raphael blends mystery plot with style, satire, and character development (hey, when was the last time you read a murder mystery series in which the main character developed over time?). As a writer, Raphael has a keen ear for dialog and a keen eye for description. A must read for readers of any genre!