Lack of the Irish: A Mystery Set at the University of Notre Dame (Roger and Philip Knight Mysteries Set at the Univ. of Notre Dame) - Softcover

Ralph McInerny is the author of more than twenty-six books, including the Father Dowling Mysteries. He has taught for more than forty years at the University of Notre Dame, where he is the director of the Jacques Maritain Center. He lives in South Bend, Indiana.

Hazel Nootin, a faceless but nevertheless unpleasant bureaucrat in the Notre Dame convention office, is brutally murdered. Her death occurs as the university is preparing for a football game with Baptist flagship Baylor University and a ballyhooed conference between the respective theological departments. Notre Dame hires private investigator Phillip Knight, whose brother Roger will be the keynote speaker at the conference. Among the suspects are an alcoholic Notre Dame public-relations flack, a sometimes violent husband, and a frustrated ex-Catholic. McInery, whose Father Dowling mysteries have delighted readers for years, has struck gold again in the Brothers Knight. The Nero Wolfe-Archie Goodwin relationship between the two is an endless delight, especially since they are on equal footing, unlike Stout's pair. McInery's 40-year Notre Dame career is the basis for the profound understanding of university life that underpins this well-plotted, very amusing mystery. Wes Lukowsky