Bookshelf

Alumni and faculty members who would like to have their books considered for this listing should contact Stacey Himmelberger, editor of Hamilton magazine. This list, which dates back to 2018, is updated periodically with books appearing alphabetically on the date of entry.

Hidden Variables: A Quantum Comedy by Bill Delaney ’73

November 8, 2023

Tags Alumni Book

(Baton Rouge, La.: Connelly Press, 2022).

The author, an ex-TV reporter, spins this hilarious metaphysical detective story about immortality, lousy jobs, murder, and quantum physics. Set in Denison, a town in Upstate New York so ignored by the rest of the world it literally disappears, the plot unfolds as failed TV reporter and self-declared private investigator Padraig O’Toole hunts down the killer of his (maybe) murdered brother-in-law. Author James Patterson notes, “If the idea of a paranormal mystery tickles your funny bone then this is definitely your book. In spades. Hidden Variables is like nothing you’ve ever read (in a good way). It’s very, very funny.” Kirkus Reviews calls the novel: “funny, inventive, and engagingly mysterious. It’s a heady, absurd parable about the dying towns, media conglomerates, and dead-end freelance work that make up so much of the American landscape. A cerebral and amusing novel that revolves around a quantum mystery.”