‘Bad Chemistry’ by Nora Kelly

Published by Galileo Publishing,
15 May 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-91754343-9

The book is set in the early 1990s when history professor Gillian Adams has come from Vancouver to visit Cambridge, where she studied as an undergraduate. She is looking forward to revisiting old haunts and catching up with old friends, and hopefully to spend some time in a place she has fond memories of with her long-distance lover, Detective Chief Inspector Edward Gisborne, a detective at Scotland Yard. Gillian knows that Edward is currently involved in a murder investigation in London and respects that this must take priority, but she is pleased when he solves the difficult case in time to join her. 

Unfortunately, crime does not confine itself to London, and when Edward is visiting an old colleague and friend, Detective Chief Superintendent Reynard ‘Fox’ Hardy, who is a detective in the Cambridge police force, news comes in of a suspicious death at the university Chemistry Building.

Edward accompanies Hardy to visit the scene of crime and it soon becomes evident that death is not only suspicious but is almost certainly murder. The victim is Wendy Fowler, a talented, hard-working and fiercely ambitious young researcher, who is found in the building’s cold room, frozen and with a head wound. Because the investigation involves the university and is that of an attractive young woman, it is high profile, and Hardy is eager for Edward to assist him in solving it. Gillian is disappointed that her special time with Edward is curtailed, but she too has a personal reason for wanting the murder solved, because Wendy had been a friend of some of her friends and a fellow volunteer with them at the Pregnancy Information Service, which is part of the Cambridge Counselling Centre. 

There are a confusingly large number of potential motives and possible murderers. In the Chemistry department there are the academics whose offices were situated beneath Wendy’s: they had been flooded three times by water coming from Wendy’s office, and most people blamed this on her carelessness. There is also a great deal of professional jealousy about a rising star in the research world. Also, in a department where the senior academics are predominantly male, there is deep rooted resentment that a young woman is getting research funding and achieving such original and exciting work.

However, it is equally possible that the murder was linked to Wendy’s personal life, which is also complicated and may have given cause for jealousy. Or it may be linked to her work with the Pregnancy Information Service, which provides a valuable service to many desperate women, but which is condemned by the ‘pro life’ fanatics and by domineering and misogynistic men. As the detectives attempt to unravel the strands of Wendy’s life and try to decide which of them led to her murder, another death is discovered and the investigation takes on a different direction and a more urgent and far more dangerous aspect. 

Bad Chemistry is the third book in the series featuring Gillian Adams. It is an interesting book that describes attitudes prevailing thirty-five years ago, when women were fighting for equal opportunities and respect in an extremely male-oriented world, and it is full of lively and often eccentric characters. Gillian and Edward are engaging protagonists and the plot is complex and well paced. This is an enjoyable read which I recommend for readers who enjoy books set in an academic setting in the recent past.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron

Nora Hickson Kelly was born in the United States in 1945. She grew up in Jersey and spent summers on Cape Cod. She now divides her time between Cambridge and Vancouver. She teaches part-time and is at work on her new novel. She had one son. She has written five crime novels featuring Gillian Adams.

Carol Westron is a Golden Age expert who has written many articles on the subject and given papers at several conferences. She is the author of several series: contemporary detective stories and police procedurals, comedy crime and Victorian Murder Mysteries. Her most recent publications are Paddling in the Dead Sea and Delivering Lazarus, books 2 and 3 of the Galmouth Mysteries, the series which began with The Fragility of Poppies. Her most recent books is The Apples of Sodom.

 www.carolwestron.com