Final Thesis: A Nick Toland Mystery

By: William Story

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Synopsis: Nick Toland, Professor of Literature at a small Boston liberal arts college, is fairly content with his lot. A connoisseur of beer and lasagna and devoted admirer of his “Celtic Goddess” girlfriend, Moira O’Shaughnessy, he indulges his taste for sleuthing a few times a month as an investigator in the Army Reserves. So when pretty coed Darlene Abbott, hearing about his detective work for the Army, asks him for help in locating her friend Kristin Williams, he turns her down, not wanting to stir up the waters of his settled life. That same day, Darlene’s face shows up on the evening news—the victim of a brutal stabbing in the sleazy “Combat Zone.” Stung, Toland enlists the aid of his Army investigating partner Swede Knudson and quietly begins to look into Darlene’s death. Looking through Kristin’s notes for a senior journalism thesis, a study of prostitution and black market adoption, Nick realizes that the naive undergraduate was tangling with some pretty unsavory characters. So Nick sets up an elaborate scheme to trap Darlene’s killer—with Moira as the bait. Rich in Boston atmosphere, from the quiet groves of academe to the seedy violence of the Combat Zone, Final Thesis is a compelling mystery that takes the reader in at the start and doesn’t let go until the final, explosive plot twist. Nick Toland is a great new addition to crime literature.