MURDER WRITES THE SCORE Campus cop Peggy O'Neil doesn't hesitate to chase burglars alone in the middle of the night among the ivied halls of academia, but she isn't at all happy about being ordered to investigate the death of Evan Turner, former director of the University's music school. When Turner's body was found washed up on the shore of Lake Superior, most people who knew him assumed he'd jumped to his death from one of the cliffs. It's easy to see why, since he'd been going through a devastating midlife crisis that had destroyed his marriage and stalled his career.

Peggy is a reluctant investigator until she meets the dead man's daughter, who doesn't believe her father's death was an accident or suicide. She lives with the nightmare that her mother may have killed him. So Peggy digs into Turner's life to try to put the child's fears to rest. She learns that not only he made bitter enemies within the music school, but he'd also gotten himself involved with a gang of thieves-one of whom just may have led him to a fatal encounter with the past.