Synopsis
(from the
publisher):
Professor Karen Pelletier is about to realize her dream; after six
years in the English Department at New England’s exclusive
Enfield College, she is up for tenure. Then Professor Joseph Lone Wolf,
her rival for the one tenured spot in the department, whose ethnicity
gives him minority-preference status, is found dead from an overdose of
Peyote buttons. First on the list of suspects, Karen is harassed by a
homicide cop with a grudge against his colleague, the love of
Karen’s life, Lieutenant Charlie Piotrowski.
On campus, political passions rage. Two of Karen’s favorite
students, Khalida Ahmed, a hijab-wearing Muslim, and Hank Brody, a
coal-miner’s son on full scholarship, are caught up in the
furor. Without the presence of her beloved Charlie, now serving a tour
of duty with the National Guard in Iraq, will Karen be able to survive
the investigation, protect her students, and find a permanent niche in
the world of academe? And what if the killer feels the need to strike
again?
— ◊ —
— ◊ —
Death
Without Tenure
A
Karen Pelletier Mystery
Joanne
Dobson
Poisoned
Pen Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59058-585-2 (1590585852)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-585-6 (9781590585856)
Publication Date: January 2010
List Price: $24.95
— ◊ —
Review:
Karen Pelletier is up for tenure at Enfield College but believes
another professor, the politically correct choice, will get the only
slot ... that is, until he's murdered and she's the number one suspect
in Death
Without Tenure, the sixth
mystery in this series by Joanne Dobson.
Karen, a professor in the English department for the past six years,
has been working hard for tenure. She's given talks at conferences, had
papers published, and she knows she's eminently qualified. But someone
else at the college has an edge on her: Joe Lone Wolf is a Native
American, and though he hasn't done anything to further his career,
he's known to be the preferred choice by the college board. But before
an announcement can be made, Joe is murdered.
The investigating officer is no fan of Karen's, having worked with the
man in her life, Massachusetts police lieutenant Charles Piotrowski,
who is currently serving with the National Guard in Iraq. Believing the
police won't put much effort into proving her innocence, Karen teams up
with another officer, who's on maternity leave. They discover that,
while Joe was popular with his students and other members of the
faculty, he harbored a secret life ... with plenty of suspects that may
have wanted to see him dead.
The author perceptively handles the sensitive subject of discrimination
-- racial, ethnic, socioeconomic -- plus the often awkward consequences
of political correctness within the context of the murder mystery plot
in Death
Without Tenure. In addition
to the murdered Native American are a Muslim female student, who is the
subject of ridicule by her peers, and the poor son of a coal miner, who
may lose his scholarship on the whim of a faculty member. The more
entertaining aspects to the story, however, involve conflicts of a less
controversial kind: a behind-the-scenes glimpse of college faculty and
administrators jockeying for an edge -- any edge -- over one other for
what may seem to the rest of the world to be rather trivial pursuits.
At the center of it all, though, is Karen in amateur sleuth mode, who
provides the perfect focal point for this academic-themed mystery.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Death Without Tenure and to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2010 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Death Without Tenure? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series …
Quieter
Than Sleep
Doubleday (Hardcover), October 1997
ISBN-10: 0-385-48692-8 (0385486928)
ISBN-13: 978-0-385-48692-7 (9780385486927)
The
Northbury Papers
Doubleday (Hardcover), October 1998
ISBN-10: 0-385-48693-6 (0385486936)
ISBN-13: 978-0-385-48693-4 (9780385486934)
The
Raven
and the Nightingale
Doubleday (Hardcover), October 1999
ISBN-10: 0-385-49339-8 (0385493398)
ISBN-13: 978-0-385-49339-0 (9780385493390)
Cold
and
Pure and Very Dead
Doubleday (Hardcover), December 2000
ISBN-10: 0-385-49340-1 (0385493401)
ISBN-13: 978-0-385-49340-6 (9780385493406)
The Maltese Manuscript
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), February 2003
ISBN-10: 1-59058-039-7 (1590580397)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-039-4 (9781590580394)
Death Without Tenure
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), January 2010
ISBN-10: 1-59058-585-2 (1590585852)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-585-6 (9781590585856)
Omnimystery
keywords for Death Without Tenure
...
Location(s) referenced: New England.
