7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Can't put it down!, February 23, 2010
Joanne Dobson has done it again. She has brought back Karen Pelletier and I can't wait for the next
installment. The entire series is wonderful--the best in academic mystery. Without giving anything
away, it is set in small, exclusive Enfield College. Karen is brave, brilliant, and resilient. She
is not your typical English professor at a snooty school! This book is very 2010--with attention to
social issues and a very clever use of Facebook. I would definitely recommend this book and would
also hope that people would go back to the beginning and read the entire series.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
fascinating amateur sleuth, January 8, 2010
In Massachusetts, Enfield College English Professor Karen Pelletier is up for tenure. Her rival has much less experience and papers than Karen has. However, the department chair is pushing Native American Joe Lone Wolf for the spot.
Upset by what she knows is unfair treatment, Karen is also anxious about her daughter Amanda who is in Kathmandu, Nepal and her boyfriend U.S. National Guard Bureau Lieutenant and State Police Investigator as a civilian Charles Piotrowski deployed to Iraq. When Joe dies from apparent peyote poisoning, the police suspect Karen as she had plenty to gain with the competition removed. Not one to sit by idly, Karen puts aside her personal concerns made worse by a jealous "Person" in the department to investigate and soon locates other suspects from among the faculty, staff and student bodies.
Professor Pelletier's latest amateur sleuth (see The Maltese Manuscript) is a fascinating whodunit that starts off a bit slow as Karen whines about the unfairness of academic life, but accelerates once the heroine gets out of her funk to investigate the homicide. The story line somewhat lampoons the college world as Karen's inquiries lead to stereotype characters from all lines of academia and their related issues. Fans will enjoy the New England English professor who puts aside her companion The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson to investigate who killed her rival.
Harriet Klausner
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tenure track breeds trouble, April 26, 2010
For me, a mildly awkward title, but the story is anything but. Author Joanne Dobson
has written another fascinating insider tale about the machinations of the very
private and often arcane world of higher academia. The novel, sixth in the series,
is set in the rarified world of Enfield College, a private high priced and high
minded institution of higher learning.
While college and collegial are from the same root, and college administrations and
faculties try to project an aura of patience, calm and reasoned discourse, we all
know, when we stop to think about it, it ain't always so.
Karen Pelletier is six years into her faculty position in the English Department at
Enfield.. She is beset by an incompetent department chair and a colleague who gives
her the willies. It is tenure decision time. In the academic faculty world, one's
position is essentially temporary until the faculty, deans and ultimately the college
administration, makes a proffer of tenure. Tenure usually means one has a life-time
appointment, so it's a pretty big deal. What's more, if you aren't awarded tenure,
you have to leave the institution. Pelletier is in the midst of collecting and
refining her tenure materials for timely presentation. There are two professors up
for tenure and only one position available. Then her competition is murdered. With
law enforcement looking intently her way, the intrepid professor has to deal with a
raft of odd characters, out-of-the-norm students, political incorrectness and most of
the other ills that occasionally beset college campuses.
Author Dobson is peerless in her depiction of the nuanced atmosphere and language of
the college. Readers will be quickly drawn into campus life. Readers might want to
have a modern dictionary at hand, but the quick pace and logical development
ameliorates the dense language. There was, for my taste, a bit too much detail at
times about a particular decor, or the details of dress where there was little need.
A fine novel, well-plotted, thoughtful, and filled with many amusing bits about the
academic life.
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