Every small, rural community has secrets, some harmless and embarrassing and others dark and ugly. No question what's hung over Harrison, a college town in southern Indiana. The mysterious death of Marlene Scott, a precocious high school student, has gone unsolved for 50 years. Enter Phillip J. (Flip) Doyle and a course he teaches at Harrison College, a sleepy, staid academic fortress yet to discover the 21st century. The school's ambitious, new president, Jonathan Casey, wants to change all this with new, barrier-breaking faculty like Flip and their curriculum proposals. First, Flip must tiptoe his way past tenure-obsessed colleagues, an entrenched dean, and arcane department meetings sure cures for insomnia. As a lowly, young instructor with no PhD to his name, it was a high wire act for him simply to introduce a writing course to the Harrison curriculum---judged by peers too utilitarian and not a credible higher ed offering. Through Flip's networking, the students got their work published in the local Hoosier-Record, helping to revive a struggling newspaper faculty considered a joke. And, looking back, it was inevitable the ambitious, young teacher and his merry band of bright students would run head-first into the Marlene Scott case. Could they solve a 50-year old murder mystery? Did new technology open doors to a solution? Could the killer be found on Google? Joining Flip and the students in this exercise was a helpful, young woman, Maria, an outsider who opened their eyes to a world under their noses. Little did they know her own story was as compelling as the one they chased.
Every small, rural community has secrets, some harmless and embarrassing and others dark and ugly. No question what's hung over Harrison, a college town in southern Indiana. The mysterious death of Marlene Scott, a precocious high school student, has gone unsolved for 50 years. Enter Phillip J. (Flip) Doyle and a course he teaches at Harrison College, a sleepy, staid academic fortress yet to discover the 21st century. The school's ambitious, new president, Jonathan Casey, wants to change all this with new, barrier-breaking faculty like Flip and their curriculum proposals. First, Flip must tiptoe his way past tenure-obsessed colleagues, an entrenched dean, and arcane department meetings sure cures for insomnia. As a lowly, young instructor with no PhD to his name, it was a high wire act for him simply to introduce a writing course to the Harrison curriculum---judged by peers too utilitarian and not a credible higher ed offering. Through Flip's networking, the students got their work published in the local Hoosier-Record, helping to revive a struggling newspaper faculty considered a joke. And, looking back, it was inevitable the ambitious, young teacher and his merry band of bright students would run head-first into the Marlene Scott case. Could they solve a 50-year old murder mystery? Did new technology open doors to a solution? Could the killer be found on Google? Joining Flip and the students in this exercise was a helpful, young woman, Maria, an outsider who opened their eyes to a world under their noses. Little did they know her own story was as compelling as the one they chased.
