An academic mystery novel in which we learn that the culprit murdered the victim because they could not agree on which font to use for their very important committee memo.

The tension builds throughout the book as they exchange drafts of the memo, each time changing the font back to the "proper" font.
No one mentions the font changes, they just seethe.
Exasperated, one of them sets up a Qualtrics survey for the committee. It has only one question: "what is the correct font to use for this committee's correspondence?"
Qualtrics data is inconclusive.
It's about the font, but so much more. The subtle indignities, the history of undermining, the times when one of them sat on the grant review board and purposefully tanked the other's grant project, which meant they didn't get to hire grad assistants & had a double courseload.
Another time one of them sat on the college-wide course approval committee and rejected all of the proposed courses in the others' field as being "redundant" and "superfluous," leading to the courses being taken out of the university's core curriculum.
Somehow these two enemy-colleagues were selected to co-chair a committee that will propose the new 10-year plan for their college. The stakes are high, the enmity is long.
Had one of them had an affair with the other's grad student while they were at an academic conference? We don't know, but we suspect.
One of them had stolen/"refined" the other's idea and published it in the top field journal. The article became cannonic, won all of the disciplinary awards, and is the sole reason why they have a higher H-index than the other.
The murder happens on the day that the @MacArthur Foundation announces its new round of Genius grants.

More from Crime

While we'll be celebrating New Year's Eve, thousands of terrified people will languish in cages, locked up by institutional actors who are deliberately indifferent to the grave risks to their health and safety. Here's a brief summary of my 2020 professional activities.

Early 2020: With the indispensable help of @lindar, I migrate #CaliforniaCorrectionalCrisis to
https://t.co/mk2kUVD1XB, which would become the one-stop-shop for the COVID crisis in CA prisons.

February 2020: My book #YesterdaysMonsters, about the hurdles in the path of aging, infirm people seeking parole, comes out. It becomes a frightening omen of things to come in ways I couldn't imagine at the time.

In March it became evident that the only way to prevent an impending catastrophe was to release people. I started collecting resources.

In early April, I linked between the atrocity of Susan Atkins' last hearing and the impending doom of thousands sentenced to death by COVID. It was obvious that the optics of releasing so-called "violent inmates" was going to sabotage relief efforts.

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Department List of UCAS-China PROFESSORs for ANSO, CSC and UCAS (fully or partial) Scholarship Acceptance
1) UCAS School of physical sciences Professor
https://t.co/9X8OheIvRw
2) UCAS School of mathematical sciences Professor

3) UCAS School of nuclear sciences and technology
https://t.co/nQH8JnewcJ
4) UCAS School of astronomy and space sciences
https://t.co/7Ikc6CuKHZ
5) UCAS School of engineering

6) Geotechnical Engineering Teaching and Research Office
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7) Multi-scale Mechanics Teaching and Research Section
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😎 Microgravity Science Teaching and Research

9) High temperature gas dynamics teaching and research section
https://t.co/tVIdKgTPl3
10) Department of Biomechanics and Medical Engineering
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11) Ocean Engineering Teaching and Research

12) Department of Dynamics and Advanced Manufacturing
https://t.co/42BKXEugGv
13) Refrigeration and Cryogenic Engineering Teaching and Research Office
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14) Power Machinery and Engineering Teaching and Research