Book 94: "The Oxford Murders" by Guillermo Martinez

[kittiwake]

An interesting murder mystery set in Oxford and written by an Argentinean maths professor. A serial killer at work in Oxford leaves notes announcing the time and place of each murder where professor of logic Arthur Seldom will find them. Each note also includes a mathematical symbol as if the murderer is taunting him, so with the blessing of the police, Seldom and an Argentinean graduate student who was lodging with the first victim, take up the murderer's challenge and attempt to solve the problem of predicting what the next symbol will be and what the series means. Although I had some ideas about the murderer's identity, I didn’t guess the true motive for the crimes.

Unfortunately, the characterisation was very one-dimensional and there were a few blatant mistakes about the way things work in the UK. For one thing, desperate parents whose children need organ transplants do not get to plead in person with the bereaved parents of possible donors. But if you are interested in maths, or like mysteries that are driven by plot rather than character, you should enjoy it.