For Geneva Anderson, an aspiring African American poet, it is both.  After her aunt, Victoria Franklin, the director of the International House of Chicago, is murdered, Geneva's life is unraveled by a mysterious inheritance and a murder charge.

Set against the backdrop of a university campus in Chicago where cultural exchange, scholarship and the arts are celebrated, The Poetry of Murder, by Bernadette Steele, takes readers through a labyrinth of revenge, deceit, and blackmail.

Bernadette Steele is a native of Chicago, Illinois. In 2004, she moved into the International House at the University of Chicago. The multicultural environment and gothic architecture of I-House and the university campus inspired her to write her first murder mystery novel, The Poetry of Murder.  This novel is the first in a continuing series of mystery novels featuring the protagonist, Geneva Anderson.