The Black Hour

For Chicago sociology professor Amelia Emmet, violence was a research topic--until a student sheand#39;d never met shot her.and#160; He also shot himself. Now heand#39;s dead and sheand#39;s back on campus, trying to keep up with her class schedule, a growing problem with painkillers, and a question she canand#39;t let go: Why? All she wants is for life to get back to normal, but normal is looking hard to come by. Sheand#39;s thirty-eight and hobbles with a cane. Her first student interaction ends in tears (hers). Her fellow faculty members seem uncomfortable with her, and her ex--whom she may or may not still love--has moved on. Enter Nathaniel Barber, a graduate student obsessed with Chicagoand#39;s violent history. Nath is a serious scholar, but also a serious mess about his first heartbreak, his motherand#39;s death, and his fatherand#39;s disapproval. and#160;Assigned as Ameliaand#39;s teaching assistant, Nath also takes on the investigative legwork that Amelia canand#39;t do. And meanwhile, heand#39;s hoping sheand#39;ll approve his dissertation topic, the reason he came to grad school in the first place: the student attack on Amelia Emmet.and#160; Together and at cross-purposes, Amelia and Nathaniel stumble toward a truth that will explain the attack and take them both through the darkest hours of their lives.