Amelia Emmet is a tenured college professor who was shot a year ago by an undergraduate student. No one has ever been able to determine his motive; he was never in any of her classes and she doesn't remember ever having met him before. The book begins with Amelia coming back to work in the fall after her medical leave. She's in pain and having a difficult time adjusting to the return. Her graduate assistant turns out to be obsessed with her case, and the book follows both of their efforts to figure out what happened.While I liked the premise, I found Ms. Rader-Day's writing and characterization of Amelia and her graduate student to be a little annoying. Some of the passages, such as Amelia's struggles to climb the stairs, are drawn out entirely too long. Nevertheless, the plot kept me going, as I was curious to see where she was taking us with this story. This is Ms. Rader-Day's first book, and I expect she'll get better at pacing and characterization, but I can't be extremely enthusiastic about this book.
Lori Rader-Day. The Black Hour. Amherst, NY: Seventh Street Books, 2014. 331 pages. ISBN 9781616148850.
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