- Genre:fiction
- Sub-genre:Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths
- Language:English
- Series Title:Nan St. Claire Novels
- Series Number:1
- Pages:190
- eBook ISBN:9781623095628
Book details
Overview
Dr. Nan St. Claire is an English professor at one of the best universities in the country, Duke University. Nan is a runner and adoring companion to three animals: her loving dog, Miss Virginia, PhD (Pretty Hound Dog), and her two tolerating cats, Rochester and McMurphy. (Anyone who can remember the novels which feature the characters for whom the cats are named deserves a prize.) Nan is 20-something, single although looking, and trying hard to be a good Catholic in a world in which sometimes Catholicism doesn’t make much sense, especially since she curses like a sailor, lives next door to a creepy peeping Tom, and has a slight crush on her gay best friend. As do many women, she has body-image issues and despairs of her “Honor Roll chest” (straight As) and swears she can feel the fat growing on her rear end when she misses a run. Nan, although earnest and genuinely nice, has an interesting, amusing, and slightly ironic outlook on life, love, and religion—(but not on Miss Virginia--she’s too perfect for irony.)
When one of Nan’s former students is found drowned in the wading pond in the Duke Gardens, Nan finds herself becoming involved, not only in the murder, but also with the extremely good-looking and available detective assigned to the case. And just as the reader will not find any gruesome details relating to corpse dismemberment or bloody, mutilated body parts, neither will the reader find any overly graphic sexual scenes. (After all, the author’s mother is going to read this.)
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Anything for an A, the first in a series of light, chick lit mysteries, does. The main character, Dr. Nan St. Clair, is a young English professor at Duke University. She is funny, smart, earnest, and irreverently reverent. Struggling with doing what is morally correct, she sometimes finds that she has to create her own way because “the rules” don’t cover every situation she encounters. Although she prays a lot—for guidance, for wisdom, for a date--she doesn’t always get an answer. She and her beloved menagerie (one dog and two cats) live across the street from Samuel, a boundary-stepping octogenarian who constantly forces Nan to question the “Love thy neighbor” Biblical passage. Sipping wine with her best friend, David, a homosexual engineer with a wicked sense of humor, is one of her favorite ways to pass the time. In the book—and in the series—sex and violence do occur, but for the most part, they happen where they should happen, namely, offstage. Nan does not have an easy life: She has all the issues most intelligent, single women have—career, weight, men, spirituality, and weight (did I mention weight?)—but these issues never overpower her or make her lose her sense of self.
Just as no “real woman” would deign to be classified, Anything for an A also defies a label: The manuscript is funny but raises serious issues; it is spiritual, but Nan doesn’t always rely on the Bible to make her decisions and, in fact, at times wittingly goes in another direction; it is a mystery, but no cliffhanging twists and turns defy reality; it is a romance, but the guy gets away at the end. It is a fun read, however, and the audience winds up caring about Nan and her life.
In Anything for an A, one of Nan’s favorite students is found drowned in a wading pool on campus early Saturday morning. Alcohol is found in her bloodstream, although the student hadn’t been known to drink. On Monday, Nan discovers a worrisome message the student had left Friday afternoon on Nan’s office voicemail. After placing a call to the police, she meets the wonderfully—and disturbingly--handsome detective, Adam Exbridge. Although Adam doesn’t believe that the death is purely an accident, Nan is the one who finally discovers the truth, which puts her in danger—although, as killing off the heroine would make creating a series difficult, everything works out in the end.
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