The Lila Maclean Mysteries: Hilarious, with a Body or Two by Susan Van Kirk

When I read Semester of Our Discontent by Cynthia Kuhn, I knew her series was for me. While I

taught as a lowly adjunct at a liberal arts college, Cynthia was in the university tenure track wars

as a professor several states away. I could stay safely on the sidelines and watch the drama of the

faculty while she was in the middle of it all. In short, I identified with her amateur sleuth and

cozy series featuring English professor Lila Maclean.

I interviewed Cynthia for an upcoming newsletter, but I had planned to meet her at Left Coast Crime to seal the deal and discover my typos. Alas, that didn’t happen. I thought the least I could do was reach out to our audience and tell them about Cynthia’s award-winning books.

Let me tell you a bit about the series overall, and then briefly describe her four books and her almost-here fifth. The tone of her stories is light and humorous. I found myself laughing a lot.

The Lila Maclean series is anchored at prestigious Stonedale University, a place close enough to the ski ranges that students won’t be bored on the weekends. While Stonedale has the usual noble goals and Latin inscriptions chiseled over the entrances of its huge stone buildings, it also has the rigid rules, turf wars, cutthroat camaraderie, an understood pecking order, and the big faculty egos and self-important staff members. If you’ve gone to a college or taught in one, you’ll recognize these juicy conflicts.

You’ll be able to cheer Lila on because she is a lover of good books, especially mysteries, and has a penchant for finding dead bodies and hidden secrets. Several characters appear throughout her series, but these two are important. She has a humorous on-again-off-again romance with Detective Lex Archer, who first suspects she is a killer, and a complex relationship with her wild artist mother, Violet, who would feel at home leading a vortex tour of Sedona, Arizona. Other characters come in and out, some permanently out.

Here are her light, but murderous, Lila Maclean books:

The Semester of Our Discontent (2016) introduces the series. Lila Maclean is joyous when she gets a job at Stonedale University, a prestigious school in the mountains of Colorado. But when she finds the murdered body of one of her colleagues, she must use her brain and instincts to avoid becoming the next victim. The local detective has her on his radar, and her fellow colleagues begin to wonder when another body is found—again by Lila. Is she a murder victim magnet? A strange symbol and a nemesis in the shadows will be dangers that threaten her life. This book won an Agatha for Best First Novel.

You an read Elaine's interview on WWK with Cynthia about this book here.

The Art of Vanishing (2017) When author and serious womanizer, Damon Von Tussel, is selected to head Arts Week at Stonedale, Lila is asked to interview him. Strangely, he vanishes right before her eyes. That’s when the sinister events begin. Where did he go? What will the English Department do since Von Tussel is their headliner? Strange messages, thefts, and unexpected events draw Lila into the middle of it all. Then, her mother, Violet, who is Von Tussel’s ex-, shows up to create even more chaos. Can Lila keep her own mother safe with people vanishing all around them? Nominated for a Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery. You can read Elaine's interview with Cynthia about this book here.

The Spirit in Question (2018) Lila agrees to be a consultant on the Stonedale Foreword Indies Book of the Year Awards Finalist, Mystery

play to be produced in the crumbling campus theatre. It is called “Puzzled: The Musical,” and that is exactly what it is: an incomprehensible muddle that will be a disaster. On top of that, the theatre appears to be haunted. Of course, like all crumbling theatre mysteries, there’s a dark history behind the theatre building. Murder, as might be predicted in a Kuhn mystery, happens center stage. Plenty of antagonists appear in this plot: the local historical society that wants to save the theatre, a psychic, the ghost, and a paranormal search squad (shades of “Ghostbusters” without ectoplasmic splatter?) Lefty Award Nominee for Best Humorous Mystery and Foreword Indies Book of the Year Awards Finalist, Mystery  You can read Elaine's interview with Cynthia about this book here.

The Subject of Malice (2019) Lila is attending Malice in the Mountains, a book conference at Tattered Star Ranch. Because of her tenure requirements, Lila has a huge job to do at this conference. She must find a publisher who’ll agree to publish her book, speak impressively on her academic panel, and manage to avoid a nemesis. Detective Lex Archer asks for her help, so now she has an added job which involves keeping her other colleagues alive when an influential scholar is murdered. Nominated for a Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery. You can read Elaine's interview with Cynthia about this book here.

The Study of Secrets (May 2020) This one I haven’t yet read. Here is the description from the advertising: There could be nowhere more fitting for English professor Lila Maclean to spend her sabbatical than in a proper Victorian mansion. The whimsical Callahan House

seems to have materialized from the pages of the mystery novels she is researching, with its enchanting towers, cozy nooks, and charming library. Unfortunately, it also features a body in the study.

Residents of Larkston have long believed that the Callahan family is cursed—the murder on the estate sets the town buzzing. Wild rumors are fueled by a gossipy blogger who delights in speculation, and further crimes only intensify the whispers and suspicions. A newly discovered manuscript, however, appears to expose startling facts beneath the fictions. When Lila steps in to sort the truth from the lies, it may cost her everything, as someone wants to make dead certain that their secrets stay hidden.