An academic mystery starring the new breed of professor who loves traditional English Lit (her subject), but otherwise is thoroughly modern. From a blue-collar family, she was a mother at 19 and by 39 was a professor at prestigious Enfield College. That journey gives her unusual empathy with the misfits at Enfield but doesn't protect her from having a crush on the university's upper-crust president. It all gets involved when she winds up smack in the middle of an "unfortunate event," murder to you and me.

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First in the series--and an exceptional starter

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Wonderful literary mystery series featuring Literature prof Karen Pelletier.

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A modern mystery of Emily Dickinson

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I consider this to be an exceptionally well-written first mystery. Dobson has draw superb characters and even if you guess the "who" in whodunit, a reader is unlikely to anticipate all the other things the author has in store. If you've ever spent so much as a semester at a private college, the characters will remind you of people you know. Dobson's observations about class consciousness and academic snobbery added yet another dimension to the novel. A blurb from Publisher's Weekly on the paperback I read notes the author's "wit and insight." I concur and am off to request the second book in this series.

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