Odyssey! Two Homers! Dartmouth College Classics Department!  And it’s all in a mystery!

The Night Woods by Paula Munier (2024) continues the story of Mercy Carr, a veteran with PTSD, her dog Elvis, who is also suffering, and murders surrounding veterans and the Odyssey.  While some of the Latin in the book could use better translations, each chapter begins with a quote, and many come from translations of Homer.  There is even mention of the latest translation by Emily Wilson.  

I won’t give the story away, but Mercy is now very pregnant and, of course, involved in another mystery.  The story takes place mainly in New Hampshire, though she lives in Vermont.  The weather also plays a starring role: storms come and disrupt everything.  In addition, there is a former professor of Classics with a troubled past, a current professor at Dartmouth who is using the Odyssey not so much to help PTSD sufferers but to work on a business model using game theory (about which I know absolutely nothing).  There are a few holes in the story, and of course the obligatory “woman in distress who saves herself” (with the help of a dog).  Indeed, there are lots of dogs, too, and they are all OK at the end (I don’t read books where animals die).  It’s worth a summer read; you can get it at the library.

By Ruth Breindel, who taught Latin, Greek, Linguistics and Mythology at Moses Brown School for 30 years.