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This page lists novels by Joanne Dobson.

Quieter Than Sleep: A Modern Mystery of Emily Dickinson

Joanne Dobson

1997

A Karen Pelletier novel.

"Professor Karen Pelletier's prime literary passion is poet Emily Dickinson--a passion she shares with her hotshot colleague Randy Astin-Berger. Heir apparent to the head of Enfield's English department, the pompous Randy is the campus Casanova. That is, he was - until he was found strangled with his own flashy necktie. The last person to see Randy alive--and the first to find him dead - Karen knows she must solve the case before she becomes the prime suspect. But to do that, she must first discover the truth behind Randy's final Dickinsonian discovery - a literary bombshell that may well have been to die for."

The Northbury Papers: A Modern Mystery Of Academic Proportions

Joanne Dobson

1998

A Karen Pelletier novel.

"As the case progresses, Professor Pelletier - intrepid researcher, defender of women's rights, and soldier on the front lines of the fight for academic progress - finds herself doing battle not only with an unknown killer but also with her own department chair; being threatened by the president of the board of trustees; and falling victim to the aristocratic charms of her college president. Any one of these peccadilloes, she realizes, might easily spell academic death to an untenured member of the faculty. And, in an ironic twist on the old professorial adage, it begins to look as if Karen's determination to publish (the biography of a woman whose writing her colleagues look upon as trash) might actually cause her to perish - professionally, and perhaps in the decidedly non-metaphoric sense as well."

The Raven and the Nightingale: A Modern Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe

Joanne Dobson

1999

A Karen Pelletier novel.

"When feisty young Professor Karen Pelletier receives a serendipitious scholarly bonanza in the form of never-before-seen manuscripts and journals by the nineteenth-century poet Emmeline Foster, who is rumored to have killed herself for the love of Edgar Allan Poe, she finds herself going head-to-head with Enfield College's resident Edgar Allan Poe expert, Elliot Corbin, an academic windbag of monumental proportions. When Corbin is stabbed to death in mysterious circumstances, Karen has an airtight alibi, but other academic suspects abound. Then it begins to look more and more as if Corbin's death may be inextricably entwined with the muse of his life--poet of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. State police investigator, Lieutenant Piotrowski, calls on Karen's literary expertise, and she is involved once more in the thankless task of investigating her not-so-collegial colleagues."

Cold and Pure and Very Dead

Joanne Dobson

2000

A Karen Pelletier novel.

"When a New York Times reporter ends an interview with Karen by asking her to name the best novel of the twentieth century, she glibly picks the steamy potboiler Oblivion Falls, a long-forgotten tome that caused a sensation forty years ago. After Karen’s comment renews interest in Oblivion Falls, the book quickly climbs onto the bestseller charts — and now everyone wants to know what became of the book’s long-vanished author, Mildred Deakin. The reporter who broke the story finally tracks her down - and is rewarded for his efforts by being shot dead in the writer’s driveway. When Mildred is arrested for murder, Karen feels obligated to investigate further. And what she discovers, as she probes the long-forgotten publishing drama surrounding Oblivion Falls, is almost as shocking as the book itself - and far more deadly."

The Maltese Manuscript

Joanne Dobson

2003

A Karen Pelletier novel.

"In classic noir tradition, English professor Karen Pelletier gains a client when her office door opens and a famous crime novelist enters. The author is dogged by Trouble, a Rottweiler, and by a problem. And since the tough-gal celebrity writer, Sunnye Hardcastle, is keynote speaker at the upcoming Enfield College Women's Studies conference on Crime Fiction, Karen is hooked. Little does she expect a priceless manuscript to be stolen from the college library, the thief to be found dead in the library's closed stacks, and her famous client to be suspected of both crimes. All this occurs smack dab in the middle of a feminist conference on the crime novel, and Karen must use her investigative skills to detect which of the many conferees has set out to Deconstruct Death."

Death Without Tenure

Joanne Dobson

2009

A Karen Pelletier novel.

"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?"

Face of the Enemy

Joanne Dobson and Beverle Graves Myers and

2012

"December 1941: America reels from the brutal attack on Pearl Harbor. Both patriotism and paranoia grip New York as the city frantically mobilizes for war. Nurse Louise Hunter is outraged when the FBI, in a midnight sweep of prominent Japanese residents, storms in to arrest her patient's wife. The desperately ill Professor Oakley is married to Masako Fumi, an avant-garde artist who has befriended Louise, a newcomer to the bustling city. The nurse vows to help the professor free Masako. When the murdered body of Masako's art dealer is discovered in the gallery where he'd been closing down her controversial show, Masako's troubles multiply. Homicide detective Michael McKenna doubts her guilt, but an ambitious G-man schemes to lever the homicide and ensuing espionage accusations into a political cause celebre. Louise hires a radical lawyer famous for shouldering human rights cases as the Oakleys' friends and colleagues desert them one by one. She also enlists the help of her journalist roommate. But has the nurse been too trusting? Sensing a career-making story, Cabby Ward sets out to exploit Masako's dilemma for her own gain, bumping heads with Lieutenant McKenna at every turn. Struggling to focus on one man's murder while America plunges into a worldwide war, Louise and McKenna defy both racism and ham-fisted government agents in order to expose the real killer."

The Kashmiri Shawl

Joanne Dobson

2014

"India, 1857: Anna Wheeler Roundtree, missionary wife, flees her husband's pious tyranny. Her timing is bad: the train carrying her to freedom steams into the midst of the brutal Indian Rebellion. Plucked from danger by Ashok Montgomery, a wealthy Anglo-Indian tea planter, she escapes the angry mobs. In the shelter of an isolated mountain cave, Anna, for the first time, learns the true nature of love. New York City, 1860: Now a successful poet, Anna Wheeler learns that the daughter she bore upon her return from India was not stillborn, as reported, but has been kidnapped. When Anna hears the baby described as "dark-skinned," she knows Ashok, the man she'd left behind in the tumult of the rebellion, is the true father, not her blond, fair-skinned husband. In her own racially inflamed nation, Anna throws respectability to the wind, learns to take risks, break rules, and trust strangers in a determined search for the little girl. Then a deranged voice arises from her tormented past, making demands that compel her back to India. Anna must confront the evil that set her running in the first place."

In the Attic

Joanne Dobson

2016

A Karen Pelletier short story.

"Professor Karen Pelletier visits a recluse poet and finds an ancient murder."