MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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A Piece of Justice (1995)
Jill Paton Walsh
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The mathematics of tilings and quilting play background roles in this mystery in which a graduate student attempts to write a biography of the (fictitious) mathematician Gideon Summerfield. Summerfield is about to posthumously received the prestigious (and, I should point out, also fictitious) Waymark Prize in mathematics...but it soon becomes clear that someone with evil intentions does not want the student's book to be published!

By all accounts this is a well written mystery...the second by the author with college nurse Imogen Quy playing the role of the detective.

(Thanks to Professor Charles Wells of Case-Western for pointing this book out to me!)

More information about this work can be found at www.amazon.com.
(Note: This is just one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.)

Works Similar to A Piece of Justice
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. The Catalyst [The Strange Attractor] by Desmond Cory
  2. Los crímenes de Alicia [The Alice Murders / The Oxford Brotherhood] by Guillermo Martinez
  3. Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins
  4. Murder by Mathematics by Hector Hawton
  5. Maths a mort by Margot Bruyère
  6. The Mask of Zeus by Desmond Cory
  7. The Dobie Paradox by Desmond Cory
  8. Calculus of Murder by Erik Rosenthal
  9. Advanced Calculus of Murder by Erik Rosenthal
  10. The Turing Option by Harry Harrison / Marvin Minksy
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Categories:
GenreMystery,
MotifAcademia,
TopicGeometry/Topology/Trigonometry,
MediumNovels,

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Exciting News: The 1,600th entry was recently added to this database of mathematical fiction! Also, for those of you interested in non-fictional math books let me (shamelessly) plug the recent release of the second edition of my soliton theory textbook.

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)