Who Killed Professor X?

This graphic novel is both a historical novel as well as an entertaining way of using mathematics to solve a crime. The plot, the possible motive of every suspect, and the elements of his or her character are based on actual historical figures.

The 2nd International Congress of Mathematicians is being held in Paris in 1900. The main speaker, the renowned Professor X, is found dead in the hotel dining room. Foul play is suspected. The greatest mathematicians of all time (who are attending the Congress) are called in for questioning. Their statements to the police, however, take the form of mathematical problems. The Chief Inspector enlists the aid of a young mathematician to help solve the crime. Do numbers always tell the truth? Or don’t they?

• graphic novel
• historical novel
• history of mathematics
• mathematics
• murder

“It is a detective story in which several of the greatest historic mathematicians become all suspects for a murder on a colleague. … This is a wonderful booklet of fiction, but based on historical incidents. … It is a fantastic present that you can give to anybody between 9 and 99.” (Adhemar Bultheel, euro-math-soc.eu, June, 2015)

• Anatolia College, Pylea, Greece

  Thodoris Andriopoulos

Thodoris Andriopoulos was born in Athens in 1967 and teaches mathematics at Anatolia College in Thessaloniki. He also teaches Game Theory in the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth in Greece. The educational project on which Who Killed Professor X? is based took third prize in the 6th Microsoft European Innovative Teachers Forum in Vienna in 2009. The distinction was awarded in the special category in which European teachers vote for the best projects. The same project also won the Greek Ministry of Education’s “Excellence and Innovation in Education” award for Mr. Andriopoulos, and Microsoft's German website named him "Teacher of the Month" in January 2010. Besides his passion for mathematics, he is an avid bridge player. He lives in Thessaloniki with his wife and two children.