Customer Reviews

The Raven and the Nightingale

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was the first book in Joanne Dobson's series that I had read and it did not disappoint at all. I did not feel as though I were thrown in the middle of a series nor did I feel as though Joanne had to repeat everything for her first time readers - her writing skills are deft and strong as are her characters.

I love bibliomysteries and there is nothing better than one that focuses on EA Poe! The plot was very interesting, Karen Pelletier, an English professor at a small college in Mass. with a knack for solving literary crimes, is in the midst of a tough semester. She is battling the nasty weather, whiny students and other professors who would like to take over a large grant that she was bequeathed for a new study center when she receives a box filled with papers on an important and yet mostly forgotten poet, Emmeline Foster, who had an important link to Poe.

When some of the papers go missing and one of the college's most disliked professors is murdered - Karen is called in to help. Emmeline Foster's death in the 1840's was never really put to rest and Joanne manages to weave both deaths into an interesting and intriguing tale. Can Karen solve a murder, find the lost papers, find a missing student and still enjoy the holiday break?

I most enjoyed Karen's relationship with Lt. Piotrowski, a Detective that she has crossed paths with in Dobson's past two novels. I can't wait to see what develops between them. All in all, I was engrossed in the plot and could not put this book down. The story had me so fascinated - I could not wait to start researching Emmeline Foster and her work - but was amazed to discover that she was a fictitious character - that is how well written this book is.

The Raven and the Nightingale is the third volume in Professor Joanne Dobson's series about Professor Karen Pelletier. In Quieter than Sleep, readers first met the professor. Doctor Pelletier found herself pregnant as a teen in high school, and dropped out of her plans to go to Smith to marry her truck driver lover. After a difficult pregnancy and marital abuse, she put her life together to raise her daughter as a single Mom while pursuing her academic career. Finally finding love with a cop in New York, she abandoned him to follow her desire for a career to settle at tony, elite Enfield College in New England. Arriving at Enfield, she became the new kid on the English department block sharing responsibilities for 19th century American literature with an aggressive, pompous womanizer who wanted to discuss more than literature with her. She found herself attracted to all the wrong men, and attracted attention from men she would rather avoid. Ah well, back to those term papers! In The Northbury Papers, the professor has an unusual stroke of luck that makes her career prospects much brighter.

Those who liked Quieter than Sleep or The Northbury Papers will probably enjoy The Raven and the Nightingale as well.

I recommend reading Quieter than Sleep before this book because the characters won't make as much sense without having read that book first. Otherwise, you may find this book to be an average literary mystery.

Due to publicity about her forthcoming center for the study of women writers, the professor receives a huge box of papers authored by Emmeline Foster sent by an alum who had recently found them. Ms. Foster is connected to Edgar Allan Poe through a personal relationship and her suicide shortly following the publication of "The Raven." The mystery quickly develops as the manuscripts begin disappearing from the professor's office. Why?
Before long, the mystery is compounded by the death of a prominent Poe scholar, known for his book, The Transvestite Poe. Once again, stoic police lieutenant Charlie Piotrowski is asked to investigate, and the professor is up to her neck in mysteries to solve. Ultimately, she will have to unravel the relationship between Ms. Foster and Mr. Poe in order to understand the present murder.

Before considering reading this book, please be aware that Professor Dobson does not use the same approach to literary mysteries that Ms. Jane Langton does. Facts and references to Poe are few and far between. You are assumed to know about Poe rather than to become more familiar with him. In addition, the fascinating Emmeline Foster is a fictional character. Had she been a real character about whom these speculations could have been developed, the book would have been a much stronger one in terms of appeal to me.

The heart of the book (and why I rated it above three stars) concerns the current academic debate about originality in authorship. While everyone knows that literal copying without credit is plagiarism, when must literary "borrowing" of source concepts be acknowledged? And how? Professor Dobson does a nice job of providing examples of what should and should not be done.

Along the way, she provides a larger than previous dose of humor in her use of stilted academic language.

As I finished the book, I found myself more aware than ever to give credit to those who have improved my thinking.

Totally agree with Kevin Killian's review--Joanne Dobson makes Emmeline Foster SO real, she is as compelling as the rest of the main characters in this third-in-the-series installment. The literary aspects of the entire series, and the concept of "original idea" versus plagarism in this book, add spice for those seeking more than just a standard mystery.

Congratulations to Joanne Dobson for inventing a 19th century poet so convincingly, she almost had me convinced that Emmeline Foster actually lived. The details of her poor adumbrated life ring true, and her involvement with the desperate, paranoid Edgar Allan Poe had the authentic tragic ring to it. Finding out that she is only a fictional character made me feel diminished a bit, as though history had gotten suddenly a bit smaller.

Karen Pelletier's struggles in academia parallel Foster's journey towards artistic creation, and Karen's relationship with her daughter and her family are well observed and wry. I didn't think the Lieutenant whose lips strike her more and more favorably over the course of the novel was all that exciting. But, at least he was there in the clinch. I'll look forward to Dobson's continuing treatment of this relationship, even if not very eagerly. Good work all around, and plenty of fun and suspense.

I am really enjoying this series that began with Quieter than Sleep. Much much better female protagonist than the bestselling Janet Evanovich One for the Money series!

Dobson has written a great book here. Her style is very readable and very likeable. Troublesome aspects for me seem to be exactly what others are praising; it seems that the only thing English professors talk about is literature and literary theory in this novel, and they are constantly vying for power and/or fame. Granted, literature specialists have their own specialties and theories, but I doubt there would be a lot of shouting matches over feminism vs. Puritanism in a department meeting. It's also somewhat odd that little Enfeld College deals with so many murders, break-ins, and so forth. Additionally, if you have any respect for Edgar Allan Poe, I suggest you stay away. Although Dobson's afterword makes note that her claims are purely fictitious, it's hard to read a book that accuses my favorite author of plagiarizing his most famous poem and committing murder to get away with it. Still, it was a likeable book and was very refreshing compared to other books I've read recently.

Dobson's heroine is an English professor at a small liberal arts college, and this mystery does a very good job of conveying teaching life--the classroom discussions, the way professors talk with one another about literature and about their department, and the unending work of being an English teacher with papers and tests to grade. The college is in Massachusetts and the book also makes the reader feel November and December in New England: the cold, the threatening storms, the scariness of bare branches scraping against a window in the night. The mystery itself is good; it connects the parts of the story--academic life for teachers and students, Poe, research, mysterious journals and manuscripts, and others; and it makes sense that an English teacher would "read" and analyze what is occurring and solve it. I enjoyed reading about Karen Pelletier's life as much as I liked the mystery, although on some occasions I find her a bit off-putting--she's a bit narcissistic. And the romance (which hasn't happened yet but is being prepared) is of course with a policeman: I realize a romance between a policeman and a non-detective heroine is a convenient, believable way to get the police and what they know into the book, but it is the staple of way too many mysteries.

Joanne Dobson's mystery of academia is a passable book. It certainly wasn't unpleasant to read, but I don't feel I gained much from reading it. Most of the facts in the life of Edgar Allan Poe were known to me prior to reading this novel, but since the Poe connection was what drew me to the book, I can't help but feeling a little cheated. That's my issue, though, not yours.

Main character Karen Pelletier is innocuous enough, and the book is at it's most interesting in the classroom scenes, where Dobson is able to inject some life into Pelletier's dialog. Other than that, she's just a ham-fisted academic trying to act sly when asked to question her fellow professors after the murder of a colleague.

I didn't get a read on any of the other characters at Enfield College. Most were academic archetypes rather than true characters. I was neither intrigued nor interested in the petty squabbling and ca't get behind any murder motivated by achieving tenure.

The love interest/cop is an okay guy, smart in a Matlock kind of way, which is to say that he seems dumb on first meeting. Unfortunately, it will be my only reading because this book just didn't grab me and make me want to read the rest of the series.

On a semi-related note, it's kind of sad that some people have built certain literary figures up to the point that they are unable to see his flaws. Poe was a deeply flawed man, very whiny and of dubious character. He really did many of the things of which Dobson accuses him. That makes him no less a genius, no less fascinating.

Karen is an assistant professor of English in a small but prestigious New England college. Her colleague is a pompous blowhard with more of a reputation than he deserves, an ever-growing ego, and a lust for a prestigious position in the department, the Palaver Chair. Karen has other problems. Her daughter Amanda is trying to find out her roots. Her exboyfriend has gotten married, and she is in charge of a soon to be very important book collection. A box has arrived containing the writings and other materials of a poet Emmeline Foster, rumored to have killed herself over Edgar Allan Poe. A small volume of poetry disappears followed by the poet's journals. Then, her colleague Elliot ends up dead and the homicide detective wants her help. In her spare time maybe!

I really enjoyed this novel. The characters were interesting and the mystery was difficult to solve. I sort of knew who did it, but the author's red herrings made me doubt my conclusions. I am going to look up the rest of this series.

It is Enfield College in western New England, (one thinks of names of actual colleges, Elmira, Endicott), and Professor Pelletier is teaching Poe to freshmen. Poe was not emotionally balanced. Maybe dead women turned him on.

Karen Pelletier from Lowell, Massachusetts, a grittier place, was in her third year at Enfield. Students at Enfield felt a sense of entitlement. The professor ate dinner with a friend from the sociology department on maternity leave. Elliot Corbin, a Poe scholar, wants to be the Palaver, (yes, Palaver), Endowed Chair and the department head, Miles Jewell, dislikes him. His office is next to Karen Pelletier's.

There is a nineteenth century American literature Study Group that meets monthly. A colleague tells Karen she should be discussing Poe as a discursive function. Enfield College received a bequest for a research center, stipulating that Karen be the director of it. Karen has a special delivery package mailed to her in conjunction with her leadership of the center. Other people in the department would be happy to derail the intended women's center and use the funds for other kinds of literary studies.

Elliot Corbin becomes a homicide victim. Karen's name is found at the crime scene. Lieutenant Piotrowski gives her the news and stays for a plate of her Thanksgiving fare. The lieutenant asks Karen to help with the investigation.

Karen rewards herself with cookies and CNN to get her grading completed. The semester is tight and the pace is brutal as everything must be fit into the period between Labor Day and Christmas. It turns out that there is a missing student, Mike Vitale, who bears a striking resemblance to the dead man. The work is a lot of fun to read and seems to be a realistic portrayal of academic life.