On This Rockne: A Notre Dame Mystery

"On This Rockne" is the first of the Notre Dame mysteries by Ralph McInerny who is best known for the Father Dowling mysteries. The main characters are the Knight brothers, Philip and Roger. Philip is a private investigator who has moved to South Bend from New York. Roger is a professor at Notre Dame. Marcus Bramble donated money to the school to build a memorial to legendary coach Knute Rockne. Madeline Rune, whose grandfather had helped Rockne write his novel "The Four Winners", is found murdered at her home. Philip and Roger team up to investigate. Who killed Madeline? Was it her estranged husband Stanley, Henry Hadley, a man obsessed with her, or someone else who had a grudge against her? It is Roger who actually solves the case. It was interesting to find out that Rockne did write this one novel. There is some football action for the college football fans. It took me a little while to get into the book, but when I did I really enjoyed it. It is a very good debut to this series and I recommend it.

I liked this book much better than the other reviewers did ... except for the fact that McInerny doesn't seem to want Notre Dame to win a football game! (I've read all of them in this series I can find, and the author features a game in each one ... and they're always ties! Forget that, and win one for the Gipper!) I found the "literary detection," however, more fascinating than the murder mystery -- so much so that I searched out Knute Rockne's only novel, THE FOUR WINNERS, which, much to my surprise, has recently been republished. It's better than this book makes it sound, and is a genuinely good "young adult" type story, given the overall sophistication of a mid-1920s audience. Nevertheless, I've spent some time in academic environments, and McInerny captures the sort of thing that goes on with a high degree of accuracy. I like the Knight brothers, although a little more effective action, both in their lives and on the football field would, I think, improve the books.