By Jim Knippenberg
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Whew, doesn't this sound just plumb awful? Seven Cincinnati writers get together once a month over a 3-year period, sip wine, argue, negotiate, heckle each other and, finally, write a mystery by committee.

Sounds like a hodge-podge waiting to happen, eh?

Well, it's not. Killing is Murder by Pleiades, pen name for the seven writers, is fresh, fun and unlike any other mystery you'll read this year. Or next.

Pleiades, a name from Greek mythology and a constellation 400 light years away, is Cay Benadum, Phyllis Eveleigh, Debbie Groen, Jane Lewin, Bruce Martin, Phyllis Martin and Krista Welsh. They're members of Tri-State Siblings, the local chapter of the national group Sisters in Crime.

How Bruce Martin, husband of Phyllis, became a sister is, well, one of life's mysteries.

Naturally the book is set in Cincinnati. Near Xavier University, to be exact, in one of those rambling old mansions the neighborhood is famous for.

What makes it unique is the approach: Each author created one or more characters, then wrote his or her chapters with that character speaking in first person.

The narrative jumps from character to character, so every chapter presents very different, very distinct, voices and perspectives.

But not much information. Like any good mystery, it builds piece by painstakingly tiny piece.

Here's the deal: Eleven aspiring writers, about as mismatched a group as anyone could imagine, gather in the old mansion for a writer's workshop.

Then one of them turns up dead, a letter opener stuck in his back.

Then another is stung to death by bees with a little help from some sort of nectar slipped in his cocktail.

Then the powers that be decide no one's allowed to leave.

Up to this point it sounds like a page ripped from Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians playbook - you know, the one about all the people on a mysterious island getting murdered one by one - complete with intertwining pasts for some of the characters.

But similarities end there: The murders stop at two and that's early enough in the book to leave a good deal of time for character development and murder unraveling.

Some of the characters are real prizes: Darci, the sweet - and smart - ex-hooker looking to start a new life; Harden Carruthers, the ex-vice squad cop with some great stories and a third-grader's grasp of grammar; Linda Callahan, the excruciatingly dull English teacher; Ralph Lamping, the vicious UC physics prof who keeps telling other participants how stupid they are; Terrence Mosley, the UC football star assigned to the weekend as punishment for roughing up one of his profs in a grade dispute.

Because of the odd approach to writing the novel - first person from a whole raft of different people - we learn about the characters partly from the chapters they narrate, but more from the chapters their colleagues write.

Comparing, say, Callahan's vision of herself with Mosley's brutal - and more realistic - take on her is, well, a real lesson in "seeing ourselves as others see us."

That part's as much fun as trying to solve the murder, something the characters do right along with the reader as they steer us through their chapters in a chatty, easygoing style that makes for a mighty fast read.

The actual murderer is one of the narrators, but far too cagey to let on, even when talking to the reader.

That little trick stands out as some really skillful writing in a book that's pretty much loaded with skillful writing.

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E-mail jknippenberg@enquirer.com