Shade

Product Description A modern murder mystery. Assistant Professor Marcus George, a young, gay Harvard faculty member striving to find his footing in the Ivy League, is drawn into investigating the murder of one of his former students, the son of an elite Massachusetts family. Centered on the tense, competitive world of academic politics, the narrative vividly captures the publish-or-perish standards of academia, the strictures of life in exclusive enclaves in Boston and Kennebunkport, and the gay subculture along the New England coast. As he investigates the murder, Marcus stumbles across academic and financial corruption that could ruin several lives -- even as he falls into a tender and heartwarming love affair that will change his own. Hirsch's first novel is a beautifully realized, gripping tale in the classic style of the murder mystery genre. Review Blend atmospheric academic politics at Harvard University with a murder that rocks a New England community, and explores the gay lifestyle operating beneath its veneer of conservatism, for a sense of the different approach that Shade cultivates. [This is] a murder mystery that features an unlikely investigator: Assistant Professor Marcus George, a young, gay faculty member who becomes involved in investigating the murder of one of his former students, the son of a wealthy family. H.N. Hirsch's ability to capture the mercurial mystery in a way that will grab the attention of mystery and general-interest audiences alike is evident from the opening lines of the story: "At first he did not think it would be anything, just a quick meal with a former student. He didn't know a young life was about to end, or that his own life was, in a way, just beginning." The issues introduced by lifestyle and culture..., from relationships between disparate age groups to the culture of an Ivy League college community in New England, ... add more depth to the story than the usual whodunit, delving into matters of social and political conflict as well as crime and discovery. Hirsch is particularly adept at ... capturing the atmosphere of a changing world in which the AIDS epidemic is ravaging the gay community. Describing Shade as a "murder mystery" alone does it an injustice. [It is] highly recommended not just for mystery readers, but for those interested in the culture and special social, political, and psychological challenges of members of the gay community in 1980s New England.----D. Donovan, Donovan's Bookshelf, Midwest Book Review In H. N. Hirsch's Shade, Marcus George, a junior faculty member at Harvard who is gay and in almost every way an outsider, gets drawn into solving the murder of one of his advisees, the son-gay, brilliant, and gorgeous-of an old, elite Massachusetts family. This is a mystery that goes beyond who-done-it to capture the tense, competitive world of academic politics and that vividly puts on the page the Ivy League and "Miller's Cove," a coastal town in Maine. The plot thickens and thickens again, and in the process, Marcus falls into a tender and heartwarming love affair. This novel is beautifully realized, a gripping read from beginning to end.-Priscilla Long, author, Fire and Stone: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? Shade is a dilly of a mystery! Set in mid-1980s ivory-tower academia, a gay, untenured Harvard professor discovers that "publish or perish" can lead to dark places when he is asked to help find the murderer of a gifted former student. Author H. N. Hirsch brilliantly captures the milieux of Boston and the very rich, the dog-eat-dog world of faculty hierarchy, and gay life at the beginning of AIDS' deadly march. Like Jimmy Stewart in many of his films, Marcus is an everyman thrust into unexpected and dangerous places, and he must set things right-often at his own peril. This journey is enriched when he meets Bob, who becomes his "Dr. Watson" and romantic partner. The two doggedly pursue what seems to be a dead-end case