Fred is called into a meeting with Clayton Reed  with two trustees of Stillton Academy located somewhere on the north coast of Massachusetts. The Academy which is basically an art college is in trouble-financially among other things. The trustees want Reed to let them borrow Fred to investigate the disappearance of one of the Stillton instructors and a female first year student, whose father is a big donor.

  He agrees reluctantly-Molly and the kids are in Florida on vacation with her mother-and pretends to be a visiting professor. When he gets there he finds that everyone has an agenda-most in cross purposes with each other. He also finds plans in the missing instructor's room of a proposed vacation facility. And then there is Clayton's agenda-a possible valuable painting,more of a mural, which is hidden somewhere on campus. Of course, a few bodies start appearing and once again Fred must sort it all out.

 Probably an easier read than the previous books but the mystery and painting aren't really very interesting. I rate this one a 6. There is one more novel of the series which was released last year which I don't have but unless that is better I fear this series may have run out of steam.