In recent years, colleges and universities have become known for their "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces" - but as the 18 authors who penned stories for this powerful new anthology can tell you, there's plenty of danger still lurking behind the stolid stonework, leather-bound volumes, and thickets of ivy.

Award-winning editor Lawrence Block has assembled a who's who of literary luminaries and turned them loose on the world of academia, where petty rivalries and grand betrayals inflame relations between professors and students, deans, and donors. From Ian Rankin to Joe Lansdale, Seanan McGuire to David Morrell, each author reveals the dark truths and buried secrets that make institutions of higher learning such a hotbed of controversy. You'll encounter plagiarism, sexual misconduct, and brutal competition - not to mention secret societies, cover-ups of murder, and one near-future course of study that makes The Handmaid's Tale look like Mother Goose.

So: collect your supplies, plan your schedule, and prepare to pull an all-nighter, because The Darkling Halls of Ivy is required listening.

Contains mature themes.

Lawrence Block; copyright 2020 by David Morrell (“Requiem for a Homecoming”); copyright 2020 by Reed Farrel Coleman (“An Even Three”); copyright 2020 by Jane Hamilton (“Writing Maeve Dubinsky”); copyright 2020 by Warren Moore (“Alt-AC”); copyright 2020 by David Levien (“Einstein’s Sabbath”); copyright 2020 by Bizarre Hands, LLC (“The Degree”); copyright 2020 by A. J. Hartley (“Rounded with a Sleep”); copyright 2020 by Ian Rankin (“The Reasoners”); copyright 2020 by Tom Straw (“Noise Cancellation”); copyright 2020 by Xu Xi (S Komala) (“Monkey in Residence”); copyright 1996 by Peter Lovesey (“Bertie and the Boat Race”); copyright 2020 by Owen King (“That Golden Way”); copyright 2020 by Gar Anthony Haywood (“With Footnotes and References”); copyright 2020 by Nicholas Christopher (“Penelope McCoy”); copyright 2020 by Jill D. Block (“Tess and Julie, Julie and Tess”); copyright 2020 by John Lescroart (“Why Didn’t She Tell”); copyright 2020 by Seanan McGuire (“Foundational Education”); copyright 2020 by Tod Goldberg (“Goon #4”)