This is one of the few mystery novels I would describe as an elegant read. It is a short mystery of barely 200 pages. It starts with a visiting Argentinean student finding his landlady murdered. At the same time his mentor a renowned Oxford logician, Arthur Seldon, receives an anonymous note bearing a circle and the words “the first of a series”. Mathematical logic is part of the story but not in the least off-putting. The two main characters the Argentine and Seldon seek to discover the murderer as the death toll increases and believe the answer may lie in solving a mathematical theorem. Beside the mystery being 1st class and the believable all the way through, what is so wonderfully evoked is the modern day world of Oxford Dons, teas, concerts, etc. This is the world of the British televisions series “Morse” and the more recent “Inspector Lewis” but with a story that is far more complicated than television will allow and certainly more elegant than most mysteries. The writer has, what I can only call, almost Borges like rhythms to his writing at times, while always advancing the story and deepening the characters. A marvelous entertainment with a good pipe and libation probably best suited to spring or summer reading

Maxim