Second in series of mysteries set in academia

The Art of Vanishing (A Lila Maclean Academic Mystery) (Volume 2)

By: Cynthia Kuhn

Rating: 4 of 5

This is the second book in the Lila Maclean Academic Mystery series. What is unusual is that this is not a murder mystery but rather one of finding out why unusual events are happening.

The story is set in Stonedale University which is located in Colorado. Lila Maclean, a literary professor who is in her first year of teaching at the university (and who is concerned about her tenure track), becomes involved in solving the crimes which are occurring. They all revolve around Damon Von Tussel who, as it turns out, has a personal connection to Lila that brings her front and center as the person to keep Von Tussel safe and sound.

As the prior book in this series was a murder mystery, I kept waiting for that particular shoe to drop. When I was more than halfway through the book, I realized that the book would probably not include a murder. It made a difference on what I was looking for as far as clues were concerned. While I figured out the whodunnit before it was revealed in the book, the whydunnit was a little more difficult to decipher and needed some of the information given towards the end of the book to figure out the mystery.

I enjoyed the book and look forward to the next in the series.

I was provided a digital advance reader copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley.