Book Review: Final Exam

Reviewed by Peter Hassebroek

A rural college town is shaken to the core in this thriller of brutal crimes and human complexity.

Widower Don Weston, a Civil War buff and ex-cop from Philadelphia, has found a contented transition to retirement as police chief at Churchville University. The low risk demands of the job—background checks for new hires, campus hi-jinks, discrimination, etc.—enable Don to indulge in his much-desired historical activities, like reenactments.

His employer, meanwhile, is suffering from a stretch of mismanagement and bureaucratic infighting, and drastic change is required. Don plays his part vetting an incoming president, Harold Olson, and a provost Isabel Helms. They pass, notwithstanding a hint of scandal for Harold and a curious detail indicating an extracurricular relationship between the two candidates that includes Harold’s wife Elly.

Once the new regime establishes itself at the school and in the community, cuts and demotions commence, creating a substantial suspect pool when the violence begins. First, the provost goes missing, and then the president is murdered in intricately grisly fashion. Weston teams with state police and other law enforcement agencies once there is no doubt these events are connected, to each other and to a subsequent apparent suicide.

The who and why is at the core of this mystery, but the reader has an advantage regarding the how. Each victim’s ordeal is shared from their perspective in graphic detail, then taken up by their assailant after their POVs functionally expire:

“A surprising amount of blood still pumped from her body. Her wrists were opened next, producing a fountain of arterial spurting, marking each heartbeat, the big pool and the kitty litter consuming all. The neck was the last cut, an OJ/Nicole beauty that would be the precursor to removing the head.”

The dramatic contrast between such scenes and the more deliberate police procedural one is sharp. The pace of the investigation seems calm, even unrushed, in comparison to the frantic intensity of the violent acts. This parallels the gulf between the wholesome university town image and the barbarity occurring within. The constant is the uncertainty of what might come next. This book is going to keep you guessing.

Don’s feeling restless about his career. He’s tempted to consider a return to more active police pursuits before he fully retires. He’s in his element interacting with locals, especially when teaming up with new and former professional colleagues. This is likely to set up his character in Blame it on the Moon, for which this is a prequel.

The novel is mostly chronological, and the omniscient voice dips into the points-of-view of many characters. And it handles them well. The leisurely prose is augmented by jarring scenes, evoking the disparity between what’s seen and what lurks underneath. The story flows seamlessly and engages from start to finish.

As the tangible truths unfold, the motivations remain murky. The acts are clearly evil, but not necessarily the perpetrators who have their own stories. This human factor instills a subtle complexity that elevates Final Exam above the others—an exemplary procedural crime story.

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