Academia is the target for mystery writer Lev Raphael, author of the popular Nick Hoffman series. In Let's Get Criminal, The Edith Wharton Murders, and The Death of a Constant Lover, Raphael offers a witty exposé of university life at the fictional "State University of Michigan."

"Who says academia isn't the real world?" asks Raphael on his website, The LEV Page. "It's got the vanity of professional sports; the hypocrisy of politics; the cruelty of big business; and the inhumanity of organized crime. A perfect setting for murder and satire!"