In Death of a Department Chair, protagonist Miriam Held recounts the
events of the previous fall when she was suspected of killing Isabel
Vittorio, the chair of her department and her former lover. The
controversial and contrary Vittorio was, at the time of her death,
attempting to block the hire of a brilliant African American female
professor. Already under siege for her attempts to increase diversity on
campus, Miriam is forced to defend her reputation and her life. As she
searches for the truth, Miriam amasses evidence that leaves few friends
and colleagues free from suspicion. Both a classic whodunit and a witty
satire, Death of a Department Chair dramatizes how communities can
create the very climate of mistrust and paranoia that victimizes them.