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Death Without Tenure: A Professor Karen Pelletier Mystery

Joanne Dobson
Poisoned Pen Press (2010)
ISBN 9781590585856
Reviewed by Enid Grabiner for RebeccasReads (8/08)

Karen Pelletier, an English professor at small but elite Enfield College, finds herself embroiled in a murder on campus.  She becomes a prime suspect when colleague Joe Lone Wolf, her rival for tenure, is found dead from an overdose of peyote buttons.  She is surrounded by a less than appealing faculty, each of whom has his own agenda. The secret goings-on between them are suspect, making one wonder why Karen would even desire to remain at that institution. 
     
Compounding the anxiety of preparing her papers to present for tenure and dealing with her own suspected culpability in murder, Karen also feels obligated to probe into the unexplained involvement of two of her favorite students.  With boyfriend Charlie in Iraq, her daughter in Nepal and her mother suddenly left on her doorstep, she takes matters in her own hands and enlists the aid of Felicity, Charlie’s former partner to investigate.

What makes this a compelling book is not only the combination of a well developed mystery and fully carved out characters,  but the academic setting which lends itself to edify the reader.  The literary background is an informative plus.

This book is 6th in the Karen Pelletier series and I look forward to backtrack and read the novels from the beginning; to get to know this professor who has murder as part of her curriculum.  As a reader, involving oneself in a series is like putting on a comfortable old pair of shoes and taking a walk in a familiar locale.  The environs are the same but the neighbors and seasons change.


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