Reviewed on 05/31/2011 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Pamela Leffler

Patricia Rockwell is an academic with an impressive portfolio of publications, journal articles, textbooks and presentations. She holds a doctorate in Communications. This is her first book of fiction. With her solid and prolific background in academics, it would be easy to think the transition to fiction might be a bit weighty, or overly academic.  This is absolutely not true of Dr. Rockwell.  She has written a cozy novel in an untapped area of the study of sound waves that is very definitely readable.  I chose to review this book because I'm fascinated by all kinds of science, and love cozy mysteries. I was not disappointed.

"Sounds of Murder" does take place in a university, and sprinkled throughout, the politics of a university come dashing through. But this is a murder mystery set in a faculty dealing with communications. As in all cozy mysteries, there are several interwoven characterizations. Anyone who has gone to, or worked in, a college or university will appreciate the diverse personalities they find there.

Our heroine, Pamela Barnes, specializes in Acoustics, the study of sound waves, voice patterns, and basically anything to do with sound.  She teaches this at a graduate school in the university.  On this night, she has a  three-hour class and has just made sure that her student assistant, Kent, has locked the Communications Lab before they go to class, since the school is usually empty at this time of the evening and there is a great deal of very expensive equipment in there.

The author's characters range from meek to extreme behaviour. Dr. Charlotte Clark is one of the latter and very quickly the story takes off with a terrible argument between Dr. Clark and the Head of the Department, Mitchell Marks. Pamela has just come into the front of the main office to get her mail and the strength of the argument is coming right through the Head's office door. She can hear it, although she can't hear the words, When she hears Charlotte getting louder as she approaches the door, she hurries out of the office and into class.

On leaving at the end of the evening, Kent is sent to double-check that the door to the lab is locked.  Next thing she hears is Kent running and calling her to come to the lab, he has found the door wide open and a body slumped at one of the special computers. Now our story is really underway as police arrive and question them both together and separately, only with a brief pause for Pamela to call her husband Rocky to let him know she would be late.

From this point on, the action begins to build, everybody seems to have a motive of some type, but as well, we are witness to all Pamela's thought processes, which I found to be unique and fascinating. Her mind goes over and over but jumps to inane things in between just as a person who has met with trauma would do.  Here I began to have the feeling of being inside her head, a remarkable piece of storytelling. This happens a few times as the investigation moves along, but the reader almost always knows what Pamela herself is thinking. Though this may be anticipated to be monotonous, in reality it most certainly is not; there is even some humor to be found in this method. One thing she is thinking is that she may well be the only person available with the expertise to possibly solve this case or at the very least present compelling evidence, because she has a small sound byte on a CD that she knows she is the most likely to be able to analyze it.

Meanwhile, Rocky and the lead Columbo-like Detective Shoop both try to stop her from "sticking her nose in" but she just can't leave it alone.  This is a well-written mystery, with some unique features. I do enjoy finding cozies or any book that has something new and different. This appears to be the first in a series, and I certainly hope so.  There is humor and pathos, surprises, lots of interaction of characters, and a most tempting house to come home to. Regardless of the murder and political academia, this is essentially a warm friendly story, a perfect cozy to curl up with.

Reviewed on 07/30/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Betty Gelean

Pamela Barnes is a professor in psychology who specializes in speech and sound is at Grace University. Kent, her graduate assistant, finds Dr. Charlotte Clark dead in the computer lab, strangled by a cord. Though Clark brought in lots of grant money to the university, she was not popular with the others in the department but Barnes wants to make sure her murderer is found.

Dr. Barnes had heard Clark arguing with the department head Mitchell Marks before the murder and Clark placed a mysterious photo of a former student in Marks mail slot the day she was murdered. The woman arrives and leaves crying. Barnes cannot imagine Marks murdered Clark but thinks it has to be someone in the psychology department. The police are not working as quickly as she would like so she starts investigating.

When the computer lab is again opened, Pamela goes back in to see if she can find something the police may have missed. She wonders if Clark had turned on the sound toggle while she was working at the computer. She checks the main computer and realizes the sounds of the murder had been recorded probably accidentally pushed by Clark in the midst of the struggle. Pamela listens to it and makes a copy. When later than evening Pam tells her husband, Rocky about it he is concerned and tells her to leave the investigation to the police.

Pamela does take the disc to the police but keeps a copy and with her persistence records sounds to find out what is making that non-human clicking sound in the recording that she cannot identify. This leads to a confrontation and the murderer is uncovered.

This book covers the fascinating inner workings of a university dealing with tenure issues, cutbacks, grant money and strong personalities. Rockwell has written interesting characters and I want to read more books about Professor Pamela Barnes.

Reviewed on 07/10/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Janice Hidey

In "Sounds of Murder," Grace University psychology professor Dr. Pamela Barnes turns amateur sleuth when her graduate assistant, Kent Drummond, summons her to the department's state-of-the-art computer lab where Pamela finds prima donna professor Dr. Charlotte Clark strangled to death. Though Charlotte was a real go-getter and brought in mega dollars in research money, she was not well liked by department staff, and for good reason. However, since Pamela discovered Charlotte's body, she feels compelled to find her killer.

Although the local police department's Detective Shoop is investigating the case, Pamela feels her expertise in acoustics may be just what is needed to uncover the killer, much to the chagrin of her husband Rocky, a former Army cook who now teaches English classes at Grace University.

There are plenty of suspects in the murder, including Charlotte's protege, the department dean and other department staff. Pamela discovers a digital recording of the murder and holds onto it to analyze it for clues. When she tells Rocky about it, he demands she give it to Shoop. She does give Shoop the recording but, of course, she keeps a copy for herself. Will Pamela's sleuthing uncover the killer or will the killer decide Pamela knows too much and attempt to stop her?

Patricia Rockwell has created a fun leading lady in Dr. Pamela Barnes. I enjoyed the camaraderie she has with her female colleagues and her husband. And I can relate to her relationship with her teen daughter Angela. Also, Rockwell includes Rocky's recipes at the end of the book, which is a nice touch. Overall, "Sounds of Murder" was an enjoyable read, if a bit slow paced for me. I would recommend this book to cozy mystery lovers.

Reviewed on 06/12/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Darcy Odden

What a great mystery.  This book kept me guessing all the way to the end.  I really liked the mian character Pamela Barnes.  She was likable character and I really iked the relationship she had with her husband and daughter.  In this day and age when it seems as if there are problems in all the relationships in books it was refreshing to find a husband and sife who had a good marrigage and actually liked eadh other.  Yes they had their disagreements but there where legimate reasons.  I liked the setting of the book on a college campus and the means by which Pamela goes about finding the killer is unique.   Pamel's relationship with her co-workers was good but I didn't relly seem to connect with any of them.  I would give this book a four out of five it was very enjoyable and will keep you wondering who dun it.  

Reviewed on 06/09/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Mindy Detweiler