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GENRE: Fiction WORD COUNT: 76,000 words SYNOPSIS In Defending College Heights, a veteran political reporter investigates the murder of an Army recruiter within a tumultuous college community. COLLEGE HEIGHTS, NEW YORK: The body of U.S Army Captain and recruiting commander Kevin is found in a guardhouse at Hudson Technical University (aka Hudson Tech), an engineering school, historically friendly to the military, but struggling to survive. Regional media are not confident that local law enforcement will solve the case, while opposition to military recruiting at high schools and colleges in the Hudson River Valley has attracted favorable press coverage. Angered by the lackadaisical attitudes of the media and the College Heights’ police, Callahan’s uncle, urban planner Jack Donnelly, sets out from Philadelphia to conduct his own investigation, unafraid to step on toes in a community where town-gown relations have reached their worst. As Donnelly tries to learn the truth behind the murder, Hudson Tech president Martina Tiernan attempts to repair her school’s reputation in its aftermath. Fearing Donnelly’s investigation will further embarrass the university, but desperately needing his help to save her school, Tiernan asks him to become special assistant for campus planning. Donnelly believes Tiernan is trying to buy his silence, but he reluctantly comes aboard and learns that the murder was the lynchpin to a larger scheme that could close Hudson Tech’s doors for good.