The Blackbird Papers (2004)

You'd think a low-class thing like murder would be beneath the Ivy League. But when a noted African-American Dartmouth professor is killed on his way home from a party in his honor, FBI agent Sterling Bledsoe -- the victim's brother -- is called in to investigate. He tries to connect the dots between his brother's research, white supremacists, a flock of dead blackbirds, and Native American rituals, all the while listening to the imperious college president whine about the school's rep. Former NBC medical correspondent Smith keeps the pot boiling with a quick pace and some head-snapping plot twists. The result? A cool summer page-turner.