I couldn't put this down! Cheryl Miller Dellasega delivers a perfectly paced mystery with a setting that feels incredibly authentic. The characters are sharp, the plot is engaging, and the twists kept me guessing until the very end.

This mystery delivered everything I hoped for—intrigue, clever plotting, and a strong sense of place. The story kept me guessing without ever feeling confusing, and the resolution tied everything together beautifully.

Murder at University Park is one of those campus thrillers that slips under your skin from the first page — all humming tension, institutional rot, and that particular late‑90s atmosphere where ambition and danger seem to share the same oxygen. It’s sharp, unsettling, and painfully believable.

Dr Lacey Redd is the kind of protagonist I gravitate toward: brilliant, determined, and quietly exhausted by the compromises academia demands. Tremain‑like in its emotional precision, the novel captures the claustrophobia of a department ruled by a man who has been allowed to believe he is untouchable. Geoffrey Hart is the perfect academic predator — charming when it suits him, vicious when it doesn’t, and protected by a system that rewards his brilliance while ignoring the bodies he leaves in his wake.

The early chapters have a slow, simmering dread as Lacey begins to suspect Hart’s research isn’t just sloppy but deliberately falsified. Her alliance with a tech‑savvy colleague brings a flicker of hope, a sense that truth might actually win — which makes his death in the campus library feel like a blow to the chest. From that moment, the novel shifts into something darker, more urgent, as Lacey realises she’s not just fighting corruption but surviving it.

What struck me most is how the book handles power: the way institutions close ranks, the way women are expected to endure, the way silence becomes a currency. When Hart finally attacks Lacey, the scene is written with such raw clarity that her act of self‑defence feels both terrifying and triumphant. But even with him removed, the danger doesn’t dissipate. Someone else is watching. Someone else has decided she’s a threat.

The result is a thriller that feels grounded, furious, and deeply human. It’s less about the mechanics of a murder and more about the cost of telling the truth in a place built to bury it. Fans of My Dark Vanessa and The Secret History will find plenty to savour here — the moral murkiness, the intellectual intensity, the sense that brilliance can curdle into something monstrous.

Atmospheric, gripping, and quietly devastating, Murder at University Park lingers like the echo of footsteps in an empty corridor long after you’ve turned the final page.

With thanks to Cheryl Miller Dellasega, the publisher and netgalley for the ARC

I often mention that dark academia is my favorite trope. There is something about books set on a college campus with the setting and the mystery and all those students and professors just waiting for action - when done right, I'm hooked! This novel was no exception. Cheryl crafted a brilliant storyline and an interesting main character. Reading this was a joy. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.