Susan Choi is able to create believable, engrossing portraits of introverted characters whose introversion has been engendered by past trauma. However, on a literary level, much of the writing I encountered in A Person Of Interest seemed to be meandering and excessively elaborate. The main premise of the plot - that an Asian immigrant professor might be dangerously implicated in a crime he did not commit - was quite intriguing, as well as the supporting premise of the struggles of mid- and late-career academics who are not and never will be superstars. But Susan Choi only inadequately developed the main premise and barely scratched the surface of the supporting premise. Instead, the bulk of the novel focused on the adultery perpetrated by the professor and the wife of a colleague, and the resulting obligatory long-term sorting-out of the feelings and emotions of the various characters affected by the adultery. The story could have done with a bit of tightening and the effective use of less elaborate prose.

Math was entirely incidental to the story. Indeed, it was so incidental that had Ms. Choi made the central character an art or history professor instead of a math professor, the story would not have changed at all.