MYSTERY

The Ancient Nine

by Ian K. Smith
St. Martin's. Sept. 2018. 432p. ISBN 9781250182395. $27.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250182401. SUSPENSE
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In 1988, Spenser Collins, an African American premed student and athlete from Chicago, is nominated for induction into one of Harvard's most prestigious social clubs. The Delphic, riddled with tradition and home to power brokers and industry moguls, is looking to recruit fresh (blue) blood. While swimming with the sharks among the one percent, Spenser and his friend uncover the Ancient Nine, a hidden inner circle within the club who hold their secrets close, including a death on campus in the 1920s that kickstarts the story. Not an intense thriller, nor a puzzling mystery, Smith's second novel (after The Blackbird Papers) is best when describing the campus atmosphere and daily life of an undergrad at Harvard, where the author was a student, a place he renders lovingly.
VERDICT There's some meat here for readers of mysteries set in academia and political thrillers, but they'll likely want more. For a similar feel, try Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason's The Rule of Four, a campus novel with a bit more danger and pulp and far more puzzles.
Reviewed by Gregg Winsor, Johnson Cty. Lib., Overland Park, KS , Aug 01, 2018
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