The Student
Matlock

This sets up a beautiful murder mystery with a surprising finish. The English professor is having an affair with a student, has had another with another student’s wife, threatens to flunk a star basketball player for cheating on a test, and is stabbed to death with his mistress’s scissors.

She wanted a more serious relationship. The haughty jock “put this school on the map” and used to date her. The cheating spreads out to more suspects. A graduate student had access.

It was the husband who killed the professor in a frame job. He stole the tests and sold them for thousands to finance a transfer to Harvard Business School, “where the money is these days”. His open marriage was unaffected by his wife’s infidelity, but expulsion would have ended his career hopes.

The title refers to Ben Matlock himself, back in school for a literature course and unable to decide between Hemingway and Faulkner for a term paper.