Betsy Draine & Michael Hinden

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Hari Rorlich

Michael Hinden (left) and Betsy Draine.

Michael Hinden (left) and Betsy Draine.

For the fifth novel in their globetrotting Nora Barnes and Toby Sandler mystery series, co-authors Betsy Draine and Michael Hinden bring their art historian and antique dealer protagonists to the UW-Madison campus for an intriguing tale inspired by local history. The Bones of Bascom Hall revolves around the discovery of bones in the attic of an administration building. Might they be connected to the Sterling Hall bombing during the Vietnam War? Draine and Hinden, both emeritus professors of English at UW-Madison, also manage to work in a subplot involving lost architectural plans drafted by Frank Lloyd Wright. Draine and Hinden will discuss the novel with Doug Moe; seating is limited and reservations are suggested, and it also will be livestreamed via Crowdcast.

media release: Campus police at the University of Wisconsin–Madison are baffled by the discovery of human remains in the attic of the administration building. Drawn into the investigation, visiting professor Nora Barnes connects the bones to the Vietnam-era bombing of Sterling Hall. But someone doesn’t want her probing the past. She’s side-swiped by a car while riding a bicycle and almost crushed in the art library’s motorized book stacks. Meanwhile, her high-spirited husband, Toby Sandler, is hot on the trail of lost architectural plans drafted by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Inspired by an event that traumatized Madison and shocked the nation, this absorbing novel blends fact and fiction and is sure to delight both mystery enthusiasts and UW alumni.

“An enthralling story that captures my hometown and the University of Wisconsin of both the sixties and today with joyous verisimilitude—and even more than that, in the sophisticated hands of Betsy Draine and Michael Hinden, the particulars of this Madison mystery have great universal appeal.” —David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and Madison native “A rewarding campus mystery bringing the turmoil of the Vietnam era into the present. With a winning blend of art history and Frank Lloyd Wright’s inventive body of work, and two engaging amateur sleuths, Draine and Hinden deliver an innovative plot and complex characters with signature flourish.” —Lynn C. Miller, author of The Lost Archive

“Literate and witty. A classic mystery replete with twists, clever misdirection, fascinating riffs on arcane subjects (biological anthropology, quantum theory), and interesting tidbits on Frank Lloyd Wright. A charmer of a book.” —Aaron Elkins, author of the Gideon Oliver mystery series

Betsy Draine and Michael Hinden are the coauthors of Murder in Lascaux, The Body in Bodega Bay, Death on a Starry Night, and The Dead of Achill Island, the first four mystery novels featuring Nora Barnes and Toby Sandler. They also coauthored the memoir A Castle in the Backyard: The Dream of a House in France and translated The Walnut Cookbook by Jean-Luc Toussaint. They are professors emeriti of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.