Ring Of Fire by Bill Cokas

Wally Gibbs has a master plan.  Not content with being a professor of marketing, he has come up with the ultimate marketing plan; a plan that will make him rich beyond his wildest dreams.  So what if a few deaths have occurred during the planning stages?

The plan involves class rings, gemstones found only on a Greek island, miniature cameras and sophisticated database software.  Can Gibbs be stopped before his plan takes hold and more people die?  The only ones who might be able to stop him are a cartoonist who happens to be one of Gibb's students and a surly campus policeman with issues of his own.  They form an unlikely team determined to stop the plan and expose Gibbs.

Bill Cokas has created an interesting, quirky mystery that is bound to please mystery lovers, especially those with a North Carolina tie.  His characters are interesting and the plot moves along at a perfect pitch.  This book is recommended for mystery lovers who enjoy mysteries that are more cerebral than gory.

Cokas graduated from the University of Carolina-Chapel Hill and then went into the advertisement business, writing ads and commercials.  He is now back in North Carolina, and teaching at the university he graduated from.  Ring of Fire is his most recent mystery, but fans will hope it is not his last.