Professor Aaron Doyle Knihy

When it comes to a masters or PhD program, most graduate students don't deliberately set out to fail. Yet, of the nearly 500,000 people who start a graduate program each year, up to half will never complete their degree. Books abound on acing the admissions process, but there is little on what to do once the acceptance letter arrives. Veteran graduate directors Kevin D. Haggerty and Aaron Doyle have set out to demystify the world of advanced education. Taking a wry, frank approach, they explain the common mistakes that can trip up a new graduate student and lay out practical advice about how to avoid the pitfalls. Along the way they relate stories from their decades of mentorship and even share some slip-ups from their own grad experiences.

Ireland, 2010, and austerity is biting. When downbeat and disaffected Noelie Sullivan finds his missing punk records for sale in a charity shop in Cork, it seems like a lucky break until he discovers documents inside one of the sleeves, alleging that missing local man, Jim Dalton, was murdered twenty years ago.