The Student Body • Bodies of Water

Book excerpt: Grad student Sarah Deane was on a birdwatching vacation in Texas when she discovered her true calling as the “Nancy Drew of the 1980s” (Publishers Weekly). In these two adventures, however, she's brought her eagle eye back home to Maine. The first stop is Bowmouth College, where Sarah, a newly minted teaching fellow, learns that some things may be even deadlier than academic infighting. One reviewer noted that he was “actually tempted to assign the book to grad students, so they'll know what they're getting themselves into.” Sarah's next port of call is in fact the water, as she and her boyfriend kick back on a swanky yacht in exchange for helping the oddball owner distribute Bibles to churches along the rocky coast. It's all smooth sailing until another passenger turns up dead, and Sarah realizes (with some terror and just a little sleuthly delight) that a death on a ship at sea is just a water-logged version of a locked-room mystery.