In 1994, a small Liberal Arts college in Vermont offers a controversial class: a convicted murderer, once a gifted professor, will conduct a class via satellite from his jail cell, called Unraveling a Literary Mystery in which nine of the best and the brightest will try and uncover the true identity of reclusive author Paul Fallows. Alex Shipley quickly realizes that Richard Aldiss’s motive behind teaching this class is hoping to inspire one of his students to follow the clues he gives and prove his innocence. Jump to the present where Alex is Dr. Shipley, a respected English professor at Harvard. She is summoned back to Jasper college where one of the members of Aldiss’s class has been murdered in the same method and same setting as the two murders of which Aldiss was convicted. Alex gathers the other six original members of their group together (one killed himself several years earlier) and they relive the past, realizing someone may be playing The Procedure, a game in which participants reenact one of Fallow’s books, except no one has ever died before. The narrative alternates between 1994 when Alex followed Aldiss’s clues to Iowa, and the present, when she realizes she may not have done such a good thing twenty-five years ago.
In addition to being a suspenseful thriller, Dominance explores the possibilities of good books intriguing and puzzling, being more than a pleasant way to spend the afternoon, but sometimes being twisted for evil. The plot takes several twists and turns, ending up more or less where you might expect, but with one final surprise to leave you hanging. Alex is often aloof and detached, but very driven, making her Aldiss’s perfect choice for whatever game he is playing.
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