CODE GREY opens in Cambridge, the town on the east coast of America, not England. The icy slush could have been found in either location, as could a lover of poetry. Dulcie is working on her dissertation during spring break when a series of campus burglaries makes her boyfriend Chris fearful for her safety. Dulcie spends much time alone or with just her black and white cat Esme, researching, and the campus isn't well populated at present. A former grad student who had a mental breakdown is coming under suspicion for some of the incidents, but in the latest development this man, Jeremy Mumbleigh, is the one who is injured. Dulcie decides to see if she can get to the bottom of the matter.

I'm not sure I like a feline ghost's voice speaking to his friend, using English and telling her that she needs to take care. Cats convey such messages quite well to anyone who knows their body language and sounds, so how would a cat spirit learn English and whisper in Dulcie's ear? I do like the work going on around the campus; water pipe replacement and flooding are causing chaos in the orderly world of academia. During a previous session of works, some of the rare volumes in the English Lit library went missing, and now one of those reappears in an unusual place. Is there any connection to the burglaries?

Personally, I could do without the paragraphs of Gothic fiction at the start of some chapters; this is Dulcie's preference in reading. The good lady naturally prefers to do her case research over a desk, but other amateur sleuths would see a possibly homeless suspect as a prompt to visit a homeless shelter. Instead, Dulcie spends even more time in the library. If you enjoy tales about conserving old books and shaking up a dusty atmosphere, Clea Simon's CODE GREY will repay your interest. Just mind your step.

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