I was quite surprised to learn from the biography at the end of "Quaker Witness" that author Irene Allen "is a Harvard- and Princeton-educated geologist" -- what I had found most disappointing about QW was the depiction of a fictionalized Harvard paleontology department, having spent much of my life in or associated with scientific academia, and in predominantly male departments (math, computer science, physics, astronomy, relevant because of the sexual harassment theme). The tone just somehow didn't ring true, more reminiscent perhaps of several decades ago than the early 90's when this was supposed to take place.

I have read others of Allen's series about Elizabeth Elliot -- an elderly woman living in Cambridge on the edge of Harvard, member and Clerk of the local Friends (Quaker) Meeting -- and found them rather enjoyable because of the Quaker background, the local Cambridge color, and Elliot's personal life. The somewhat stilted writing had seemed appropriate to my assumptions of the deliberate pace of Quaker life and views. But when this same tone is applied to the world of academic infighting and striving, it makes me reevaluate my confidence in her portrayal of things Quaker.

A list of just a few things that struck me as "off", compared to my own experience and observation: It seems odd that a graduate student would still be living in a dormitory after, presumably, several years at a school, as heroine Janet Stevens is; it requires *some* sort of explanation. Allen writes "the word 'prayer' ... seemed inappropriate from a science student [Janet], educated to secularism." I don't know any scientist who would say or believe this, much less a grad student with interior urges to religion. Many scientists have deep and sincere religious beliefs, and while it would be considered inappropriate to start a lecture with, say, "Jesus brought me here today to present this equation he inspired", most consider faith or lack of faith irrelevant to the value of the science produced: it's not important whether God or simply chance guided your hand to that fossil, but what the fossil says about life. (The above quote also seems inconsistent with another student's devoted Catholicism.) The cutthroat competition Allen portrays, even paranoid secrecy, among grad students is very foreign. Students are constantly bouncing ideas off each other, collaborating, helping each other out. Also, though students and non-tenured faculty do put in long hours, as Allen describes, that is as much through fascination with their work, deadlines, and sometimes the need to keep an experiment or observation going for an extended period without funds to hire more assistance, as it is desperation for advancement. The crucial piece of apparatus, the "oxygen line" which released the poisonous gas used to murder the evil professor, is described several times. While probably technically correct (though incomplete: where does the carbon come from which combines with the released oxygen?) I find it bizarre that a scientist would not also bend the ear of the unwary visitor with extensive description of *why* they were extracting the oxygen from ancient fossils (presumably to measure isotope ratios which would tell about the climate). While I'm sure there were a decade ago, and still are, departments with the resolutely anti-female attitudes of Allen's Harvard paleontology, this has hardly been SOP for decades. Incidents, nowhere near as pervasive, I heard of in the 60's and 70's were regarded as shocking, or at least tasteless, anomalies. Contrary to the near uniform shunning by fellow students that Janet suffered, in real life the woman in a largely male department is eagerly sought out, and has been for decades.

Nonetheless, this is still an engaging book, and the mystery aspect is quite well thought out.

I have previously enjoyed Irene Allen's Elizabeth Elliot novels, especially as she has revealed the rich community setting of a Quaker meeting and the inner spiritual life of her protagonist Friend. I was tremendously disappointed in this book. Allen removes Elliot from her natural location, and, as Elliot spends the novel commenting on her dislocation, so the reader feels dislocated as well, with no reward. The circle of Friends whom Elliot relies on is gone, and the characters and suspects she encounters here are not developed enough for us to care. The reader is told much but shared with not at all. I hope if Allen continues to write this series that she returns Elliot to her home in Cambridge and novels that are more fully developed.

I really loved all three of the previous books in this series. I am not a Quaker, nor even a Christian, but I was deeply interested in Elizabeth Elliot and her spiritual journey, which complemented in a very suitable way the mystery story in each book.

I had some difficulty in believing that the same author had written this book. It was preachy, unfocussed, digressive and completely unsatisfying, all things the previous ones were not. I have much sympathy with the political position the author takes in this book, but it's a d**n poor mystery story, and not even a good political rant, as each gets in the way of the other. Distressing.

The "old Quaker", as she is constantly and irritatingly referred to in Quaker Indictment, should not have left Massachusetts. The mystery is simplisticly plotted, the characters are one dimensional and the political pronouncements are banal. I read a lot of mysteries, I have always been interested in Quakers and I love the Northwest. This novel, which should have had so much going for it, was a disappointment on all counts. Make another choice.