A Word In Edgewise: Can ‘I Do!’ Hold Forever?

The fourth Bob & Marcus mystery I read recently so perfectly and fully fulfilled the “You won’t be able to put this down!” claim that upon finishing, I immediately reached for the first of H.N. Hirsch’s four. Herewith my suggestion for an excellent four-score summer read.

Hirsch’s teaching history encompasses Harvard, UC-San Diego, Macalester College and Oberlin, a credible background for his comprehension of the byzantine politics and Olympian egos at play in these academic groves. Marcus is now an academic, while Bob, following family mentors, practices law. But first, they had to meet. By starting in the mid-1980s, Hirsch can both present current problems by proxy, while giving the reader a foreknowledge advantage of eras through which Bob and Marcus have yet to live.

“Shade” introduces young Harvard Assistant Professor Marcus George. Lonely. Dismayed by the university’s arcane hurdles for tenure seekers. A former student requests they lunch; he has a question. They meet, but the boy, from a monied Beacon Hill family, remains mum, saying he’ll meet Marcus at the Maine resort where both are headed (separately) on break. But there, the student is found dead, shot overlooking the beach. Marcus questions the roommate, a stranger, who can offer only the lad’s cryptic, “The answer’s in the papers,” indicating a stack of research folders. Marcus pursues; the trail leads back to Harvard, to Boston’s monied elite; plagiarism is implied, reputations — Harvard’s itself not the least — possibly impugned. The law student roommate’s name: Bob Abramson. That Bob. They click; series underway.

“Fault Line.” It’s 1985, the pair’s moving to California. Bob, 25, has passed the bar, joined the DA’s office in San Diego. Marcus (no Harvard tenure) will teach at UC-San Diego. Bob’s first assignment: leading the investigation into the mayor’s husband’s murder. Bob uncovers layers of governmental corruption, as well as an interconnected gay subculture with its own dark side. Hirsch’s layered presentation of unsavory factors at play, even in one’s chosen profession, adds grit to the characters who must deal with reality while wishing only to lead a “normal” life together. Scores of the cast coulda’ done it; you’ll turn pages ‘til you know.

“Rain” finds Marcus asking Bob, now moved to private practice, to defend — or offer legal advice to — Kenny Glick, an academic advisee who’s been accused by the victim’s wealthy family of causing their daughter’s death. First declared “accidental,” the case has been reopened at their instigation. Bob tries to get a straight story from Kenny, but his changes and omissions are unsettling, while a revelation of the victim’s perverse sexual habits is explained by Kenny as her researching a “variety of experiences” for her acting career. Beyond the sordid sex-for-money scene among the wealthy that’s emerging, Bob finds no actual case against Kenny with the facts he’s been given. Family life goes on; Bob’s mom undergoes surgery, and his sister-in-law announces her second pregnancy. Bob and Marcus discuss adopting. The reader is drawn into the family concerns. Kenny’s case goes to trial, and “Rain” ends with a jolt that lingers.

The recently-released “Winter” opens on a funeral. You feel the loss; these folks are family now. There’s gain as well, over time. Bob and Marcus’ daughter Lily, adopted from China, is now 11. Bob is struggling with the recent death in his family and is about to turn 40. Marcus, stopping by the UC-San Diego campus, discovers a colleague’s corpse in the mailroom. Overshadowing all is a breach that threatens Bob and Marcus’s hard-won stability.

A sunburn-proof quartet: no bored falling asleep under the sun guaranteed.