The Square Root of Murder - Spotlight

I reached into the vault to pick a book to spotlight today. OK, I picked a book amongst the many stacked around my house, but every book is a treasure, no matter how they're stored, right? I chose The Square Root of Murder by Ada Madison. This book is the first in the Professor Sophie Knowles Mystery series.

From the back cover:

Dr. Sophie Knowles teaches math at Henley College in Massachusetts. Her students adore her because she always finds a way to make the most intimidating math seem fun. But lately, everyone's biggest problem isn't math-it's murder!

Between teaching, publishing puzzles and brainteasers, and beading at the local bead shop, A Hill of Beads, Sophie has a full schedule.Finding a chance to unwind isn't always in the equation. She still manages to make time to celebrate famous scholars of the past with her students. But their latest party makes one of their own a thing of the past...

Dr. Keith Appleton was the most disliked professor on campus, but it was Sophie's assistant, Rachel, who had a real problem with him-he refused to recommend her to a medical school. Sophie is confident that there's a calculating murderer among them, and equally confident it's not Rachel. The only possible answer is for Sophie to eliminate the lowest common denominator from campus herself.