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Murder at the Margin (A Henry Spearman Mystery)
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780691000985
ISBN: 0691000980
Label: Princeton University Press
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 228
Publication Date: July 12, 1993
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Studio: Princeton University Press
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Editorial Review:Cinnamon Bay Plantation on lush, tropical St. John was the ideal Caribbean island getaway: Or so it seemed. But for distinguished Harvard economist Henry Spearman, long overdue for R & R, it offered diversion of a decidedly different sort and one he'd hardly anticipated: murder.It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Prickly and priggish, Gen. Hudson T. Decker (Ret.) might have been a Cinnamon Bay regular, but he'd managed to alienate fellow guests and a lot of townspeople over the years. Suddenly, before the local inspector has assembled a suspect list, there is a mysterious drowning and a second murder, this time a former U.S. Supreme Court justice. Prime suspects abound: a liberal professor of divinity, a vengeful wife, an alleged girlfriend, and a handful of angry local activists.While the island police force is mired in an investigation that leads everywhere and nowhere, the diminutive, balding Spearman, who likes nothing better than to train his curiosity on human behavior, conducts an investigation of his own, one governed by rather different laws--those of economics. Theorizing, hypothesizing, Spearman sets himself on the trail of the killer as it twists from the postcard-perfect beaches and manicured lawns of a premier resort to the bustling old port of Charlotte Amalie to the densely forested hiking trails with their perilous drops to a barren, deserted cay offshore.Now available in a new critical edition, Marshall Jevons's Murder at the Margin was first published in 1978, when it marked the debut of Henry Spearman. Spearman relies on economic thinking to solve crimes--a distinction that places him in the pantheon of such fictional investigators as Father Brown, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and Rabbi Small.
Cinnamon Bay Plantation on lush, tropical St. John was the ideal Caribbean island getaway: Or so it seemed. But for distinguished Harvard economist Henry Spearman, long overdue for R & R, it offered diversion of a decidedly different sort and one he'd hardly anticipated: murder. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Prickly and priggish, Gen. Hudson T. Decker (Ret.) might have been a Cinnamon Bay regular, but he'd managed to alienate fellow guests and a lot of townspeople over the years. Suddenly, before the local inspector has assembled a suspect list, there is a mysterious drowning and a second murder, this time a former U.S. Supreme Court justice. Prime suspects abound: a liberal professor of divinity, a vengeful wife, an alleged girlfriend, and a handful of angry local activists. While the island police force is mired in an investigation that leads everywhere and nowhere, the diminutive, balding Spearman, who likes nothing better than to train his curiosity on human behavior, conducts an investigation of his own, one governed by rather different laws--those of economics. Theorizing, hypothesizing, Spearman sets himself on the trail of the killer as it twists from the postcard-perfect beaches and manicured lawns of a premier resort to the bustling old port of Charlotte Amalie to the densely forested hiking trails with their perilous drops to a barren, deserted cay offshore. Now available in a new critical edition, Marshall Jevons's Murder at the Margin was first published in 1978, when it marked the debut of Henry Spearman. Spearman relies on economic thinking to solve crimes--a distinction that places him in the pantheon of such fictional investigators as Father Brown, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and Rabbi Small.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Written at a basic level
While the book did a good job introducing basic economic principles, the writing was reminiscent of a young adult fiction novel. The mystery is intriguing, but is overshadowed by the simple writing style. This would be a perfect book for freshman in High School, but if you're looking for a serious novel with an economic aspect, you'll be disappointed.
Rating:  - A TALE TOLD BY AN ECONOMIST, FULL OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND
OK, this is a murder mystery of sorts. The grammar and punctuation are acceptable, but the prose is just bad, and I don't mean wicked. Quite staccato in fact. Uneven: QED. Prone to violent fluxions of diction: triskaidekaphobia (you read Greek?), and fresh fish just flopping on the dock of the bay. Get used to it.
THE GENERAL IDEA
An economics prof. goes on a Caribbean paradise holiday and solves a murder mystery by the use of basic economic principles. You can usefully learn ... Read More
Rating:  - 2 hours -- the opportunity cost for me reading this book...
I read this book as a intersemester assignment for my AP Economics class. Interesting to say the least, it went well with my microeconomics intuition. Nice interesting story, although I already suspected who was the murderer way before our protagonist Henry Spearman mentions.
The interesting twist is in the end when I realized there was a BIGGER picture I didn't suspect. Overall, its a great murder mystery that takes economics to a whole new level.
The fusion of economics ... Read More
Rating: - A good economics primer
This book was required reading as part of my Microeconomics course. Although it's not quite on the level of Agatha Christie or Ellery Queen- the plot and story is relatively simple and easy to follow- it does show how one can see the basic laws of economics at work in just about every facet of day-to-day life.
Using opportunity cost, the laws of supply & demand, interdependent utility functions, and even the prisoner's dilemma to get to the bottom of the case, Harvard economics professor Henry ... Read More
Rating: - Learn economics with a good mystery
The premise that an economist is capable of solving a murder mystery by using economic analysis appears at first glance to be absurd. However, this story is one where that concept is made thoroughly believable. The hero, modeled after economist Milton Friedman, analyzes all aspects of behavior in terms of maximum return on expenditure. And when people appear to be violating that principle, he is led down a dangerous path that allows him to find the killer(s).
Written by two economists, this book can ... Read More
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