Lev Raphael: Mysteries

Mysteries

Who says academia isn't the real world? It's got the vanity of professional sports; the hypocrisy of politics; the cruelty of big business; and the inhumanity of organized crime. A perfect setting for murder and satire!

That's why I started the Nick Hoffman series, set at the fictional State University of Michigan at Michiganapolis. Nick is a composition teacher there, which makes him low man on the totem pole in his Department of English, American Studies, and Rhetoric (EAR). And being involved in murder doesn't help his chances for getting tenure—or does it?

"The Borgias would not be bored at the State University of Michigan, that snake pit of academic politics."
—New York Times Book Review

Lev Raphael is the former crime fiction reviewer for The Detroit Free Press.

Nick Hoffman Speaks his Mind

Travels with the Nick Hoffman Series

Cooking with Nick Hoffman

Mysteristas Web Interview

"Schooled in Mystery" Web Interview

Lev chats about the series with interviewer Nate Klarfeld on Stonewall Live

"Why do I write mysteries?"

The Journal of American Culture on the Nick Hoffman series (PDF)

	Department of Death (Perseverance Press, April 2021) Nick Hoffman has been unexpectedly installed by his dean as chairman of his English department. It's a wildly unpopular choice and Nick is now the focus of more animosity from his colleagues than ever before. He can't seem to make anyone happy and can't get a handle on his myriad new responsibilities as an administrator, a position he never wanted. Tragedy strikes when someone seeking his help is murdered, and Nick becomes a prime suspect. Hounded by campus police, the local press, and social media, Nick wonders if this could finally be the end of his career—and if he can manage to stay out of prison. Department of Death is Lev Raphael's most blistering satire yet of the perversities of academic life. Starred PW review: "immensely enjoyable" Read more about this book Buy it from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Bookshop.org

	*State University of Murder* (Perseverance Press, 2019) Still reeling from having escaped a mass shooting on campus, English professor Nick Hoffman finds himself on the receiving end of confessions by one colleague after another. All of them have good reason to hate the new department chair, Dr. Napoleon Padovani, who throws his weight around capriciously and cruelly. Resentment mounts on campus—with an inevitably fatal result. Chaos and confusion reign among the faculty, which then turns on its own. Can Nick and his spouse Stefan restore order and save the day? Read more about this book Buy it from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or IndieBound

	*Assault with a Deadly Lie* (University of Wisconsin Press, 2014; to be reissued by ReQueered Tales) Nick Hoffman finds his secure, happy, college-town life changed forever after a nightmarish encounter with police. But even when that horrible night is over, life doesn’t return to normal. Someone is clearly out to destroy him. Nick and his partner Stefan Borowski face an escalating series of threats that lead to a brutal and stunning confrontation. What will Nick do when his world threatens to collapse? How can he reestablish order in a suddenly chaotic life? Read more about this book Buy it for Kindle, Nook or in hardcover Publicity and Press Kit Resources

	*Hot Rocks* (Perseverance Press, 2007; reissued by ReQueered Tales, 2023) Fitness = Death when Nick Hoffman heads back to the gym right after a vacation, finding himself caught in a "Desperate Housewives"-type mystery. Michigan Muscle is a state-of-the-art health club adjacent to the State University of Michigan. It's a palatial complex for fitness, but every palace has its intrigue, and when Nick stumbles across a dead trainer, he's drawn into a web of passion and privilege unlike anything he's ever experienced before. Read more about this book Buy it for Kindle

	Tropic of Murder (Perseverance Press, 2004; reissued by ReQueered Tales, 2022) "Lev Raphael has done it again—another mordantly witty mystery featuring everyone's favorite acerbic English professor, Nick Hoffman. Relax with Tropic of Murder and take an entertaining, exotic Club Med vacation without even having to get out of your favorite chair. " —Dean James Read more about this book Buy it for Kindle

	Burning Down the House (Walker, 2001; reissued by ReQueered Tales, 2022) "Lev Raphael's lacerating wit fillets the fatted calves of academia, roasts them with the hot breath of satire, then serves them up in the sauciest of mysteries." —Val McDermid, author of A Place of Execution Read more about this book Buy it for Kindle

	Little Miss Evil (Walker, 2000; reissued by ReQueered Tales, 2021) "Nick Hoffman is back, relegated to the basement of his college so he won't get into trouble. But when someone torches his mailbox, Nick gets the hint that an arsonist is carrying a flame for him. As ever, Lev Raphael is witty, biting and on the nail when it comes to the groves and gripes of academe, majoring in mayhem and murder along the way." —Ian Rankin, author of Dead Souls Read more about this book Buy it for Kindle or in paperback

	The Death of a Constant Lover (Walker, 2009; reissued by ReQueered Tales, 2020) "Lev Raphael sets his campus mysteries at a factory-like state university in fictitious Michiganapolis, Mich., and populates them with the kind of stupid students and pretentious faculty members who blacken the eye of academia. Happily, he also gives his narrator, a lowly English professor named Nick Hoffman, license to mow down these intellectual pretenders with his scathing wit." —New York Times Book Review Read more about this book Buy it for Kindle or in paperback

	The Edith Wharton Murders (St. Martin's Press, 1997; reissued by ReQueered Tales, 2020) Nick Hoffman, desperate to get tenure, has been saddled with a thankless task: coordinating a conference on Edith Wharton that will demonstrate how his department and his university support women's issues. There's been widespread criticism that SUM is really the State University of Men. Problem is, he's forced to invite two warring Wharton societies, and the conflict between rival scholars escalates from mudslinging to murder. Nick's job and whole career are on the line unless he can help solve the case and salvage the conference. Read more about this book Buy it for Kindle or in paperback

	Let's Get Criminal (St. Martin's Press, 1996; reissued by ReQueered Tales, 2019) Professor Nick Hoffman can't understand how his supercilious new office mate Perry Cross beat out other candidates for the brand new position in Canadian Studies. How did Cross get hired when he's under-qualified? Just as troubling, Nick discovers that Cross's past intersects with his own in disturbing ways. When Cross is found dead and the verdict is murder, Nick becomes a prime suspect since he was one of the last people to see Cross the evening he was killed. Nick has no choice but to investigate on his own. Read more about this book Buy it for Kindle or in paperback

Lev Raphael: Author Appearances