It came as a bit of a surprise that there’s an entire series of mystery novels set at the University of Notre Dame. It came as a great surprise that these novels were written by a long-serving member of the Notre Dame faculty. The Green Revolution is the 12th Notre Dame mystery novel written by Ralph McInerny, and one of over forty mystery novels he has printed. As a loyal Boilermaker, I found the basis of this novel to be most pleasing. The Green Revolution takes place during the 2007 football season, one in which Notre Dame did not have net positive rushing yards until the third game of the season. As the season progresses, more and more Notre Dame fans begin calling for the ouster of the football coach, and some faculty move to end the football program entirely.
The apparent murder of one of the coach’s harshest critics is the purported theme of the book, but McInerny seems to spend a good portion of the novel discussing Notre Dame for Notre Dame’s sake. Certainly there are some references that would only be understood by persons more familiar with the institution than I. As a mystery novel, though, it works quite well. The identity of the killer remained unknown to me until the very end, but looking back, it all made sense. The writing style was enjoyable, even when the references were beyond me. No doubt I will pick up another McInerny book the next time I’m in the mood for a mystery.