Jane Reads: The Case of the Defunct Adjunct by Frankie Bow

Friday, November 27, 2015

The Case of the Defunct Adjunct by Frankie Bow | Blog Tour with Review and Giveaway

Frankie Bow is back, with a new book in the Molly Barda Mystery series!

The Blurb

~~Special introductory price of $0.99. Returns to $3.99 after Dec. 5 ~~

A forbidden kiss. A death in plain sight. And the faculty meeting’s just begun.

Forced to attend the Student Retention Office’s summer retreat, Professor Molly Barda brings her game of buzzword bingo to fend off boredom. But when the lecherous Kent Lovely, Mahina State’s one-man hostile work environment, collapses face-first into his haupia cheesecake, the afternoon goes from dull to disastrous. Now Molly has to fight to keep an innocent out of prison — and herself off the unemployment line.

The Case of the Defunct Adjunct is the spoiler-free prequel to the Molly Barda mysteries, a cozy mystery series set in remote Mahina, Hawaii. If you like Dorothy Parker, Sarah Caudwell, P.G. Wodehouse, or E.F. Benson’s Mapp and Lucia stories, you’ll enjoy this tale of passion, pilferage, and petty politics.

The Case of the Defunct Adjunct by Frankie Bow
Series: Molly Barda mysteries, #0

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Publisher: Hawaiian Heritage Press

Publication Date: November 23, 2015
Print Length: 238 pages
e-Book File Size: 4635 KB

ASIN: B015U1NM4O

Amazon | B & N | Kobo | iBooks | Goodreads

The Review

I just read a really good book, y'all — The Case of the Defunct Adjunct by Frankie Bow.

The Case of the Defunct Adjunct is Book #0 in Author Frankie Bow's Molly Barda Mysteries. The Case of the Defunct Adjunct is a smashing followup to Book #1, The Musubi Murder (reviewed here), as well as being its prequel.

In The Case of the Defunct Adjunct, readers of The Musubi Murder can find the answers to such burning questions as

How did Molly and Pat Flanagan meet?
How did Molly and Donnie Gonsalves meet?
How did Molly and Stephen Park break up?
How did Molly end up with a yoga ball for a desk chair in her office?

I'm still waiting to learn Molly and Emma's history — how they met, how they became BFFs. And also, what exactly did Rodge do that led to this?

Rodge is the reason we have to keep our doors open when we have a student in our office. That's why it's called the Rodge Cowper Rule....

I like Molly and Emma. I like their senses of humor.

• Iker is a professor of accounting and one of my favorite people, despite his positive attitude.

• [following Kent's death by cheesecake] "I can't believe they just kept the retreat going," I said. "I mean I know they already paid for the room and the speaker fees, but still."

"Right?" Emma agreed. "That had to be the most uncomfortable icebreaker activity ever."

My favorite part is the discussion between Linda, from the Student Retention Office, and Marshall Dixon, the university's Vice President. First, Linda complains to Marshall that it's ludicrous for Molly to not "let a student pass her class if they don't write." When Marshall points out that Molly teaches business writing, Linda tells her, "...could you imagine what would happen if everyone was such a stickler?" Then, Marshall asks Linda about the students' learning outcomes, and how the seniors did on their subject test.

"Oh, we discontinued the subject test," Linda said. "But our other results are excellent. Student self-efficacy is up two percent, and self-esteem is up three percent."

I recommend The Case of the Defunct Adjunct to all fans of Cozy Mysteries. I think that college professors who are cozy fans will especially love it, as well as teachers of K—12.

I really enjoyed The Case of the Defunct Adjunct, and bestow upon it a rating of Four Kitties.

Four out of five kitties

Note: I received a complimentary copy of The Case of the Defunct Adjunct in exchange for my honest review.
All opinions shared are 100% my own.

Follow the tour, to read other reviews plus Author Guest Posts and Author Interviews!

The Author

About Frankie Bow

Like Molly Barda, Frankie Bow teaches at a public university. Unlike her protagonist, she is blessed with delightful students, sane colleagues, a loving family, and a perfectly nice office chair. She believes if life isn’t fair, at least it can be entertaining.

In addition to writing murder mysteries, she publishes in scholarly journals under her real name. Her experience with academic publishing has taught her to take nothing personally.

Find Frankie on the web at

The Giveaway

Frankie will award signed copies of The Musubi Murder and
The Case of the Defunct Adjunct and a Mahina State University t-shirt
to three randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter during the tour.