Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Scholars by MacKenzie Common

 

The Scholars (Headline, September 2026) by Canadian author MacKenzie Common is a dark academic mystery set in Oxford. Unlike any other academic mystery I have read, I don’t know quite what to think of it.

Every year five outstanding candidates from Britain, the Commonwealth, and the United States are selected to become the year’s Shepherd Scholars. The notable program was endowed by a Victorian plantation owner who made his fortune in India. He was a graduate of Frideswide College, one of the oldest colleges at Oxford, which hosts the students during their stay. They each receive a full scholarship for postgraduate study at Oxford, and they are expected to use their experience to accomplish great things on the world stage, as their predecessors have done.

In 2024 the five included a young woman with a large social media following and who is constantly recording content, a young man who is developing an artificial intelligence program to provide instantly available grief counseling, a young woman who has established humanitarian projects in India, a Yale graduate studying mass violence and its origins, and the son of the current Minister of Higher Education who was working in Asian Studies.

All of their backgrounds were impressive on paper but a little research showed none of them were exactly who or what they claimed to be. The research unfortunately was not conducted until after one of their number fell five stories from the Frideswide College roof. The police and the university preferred to believe the death was an accident but rumors quickly swirled around campus and on social media that the victim had been pushed.

Told from the perspectives of each of the five students, all of whom are unreliable narrators, the story describes the anxiety of continuing to work under the load of suspicion and outright anger from the university populace and the accusations from social media. Their attempts to cope with the public revelations about their pasts take them away from the work at hand and prove to be deeply distracting. The credibility of these prestigious award programs is also questioned.

Oxford is omnipresent. Its authority, history, and architecture are gloriously portrayed. The usefulness and the dangers of social media are also strongly shown. The ending is unexpected and leaves a number of questions unanswered. Fans of noir will enjoy this book. Academic mystery lovers may not like it as much.

 

·         Publisher: ‎Headline

·         Publication date: ‎September 24, 2026

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎352 pages

·         ISBN-13: 9781035426140

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link:  ???? as it is not listed at this time. 

 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.