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Rating: 
Summary: Good mystery, great characters
Review: College Professor Karen Pelletier sets off a whirlwind when she nominates Obsession Falls, a 1950s sex novel, as book of the century. Before the excitement dies, a reporter tracking down the author is killed and the author accused. Karen doesn't believe the evidence and investigates. Could the mostly forgotten (until Karen reminds the world of its existance) semi-autobiographical novel bare secrets someone didn't want exposed?Author Joanne Dobson does an excellent job describing Karen's working environment: the strange relationship between faculty and departmental secretary, and the infighting and semi-friendships amongst professors jealous of one another's success. More importantly, she gives Karen a history--broken loves, a family to whom she cannot go back, a daughter now grown and moving out on her own, and all of the little fears that make a person fully human. Once she makes us love Karen, Dobson throws her into danger. How can we help our response? (Answer, we can't--just sit back and enjoy it). You may guess the killer fairly early but you'll want to stay with the novel to make sure Karen survives and to see how she uncovers the truth. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Solid entertainment
Review: Have you read Peyton Place? If so, you will particularly enjoy
Dobson's take on the (by today's standards) mild expose of
small-town sex and scandal and Professor Karen Pelletier's involvement
in the book's resurrection (and its author's incarceration). If the
series were only concerned with Pelletier's sleuthing skills, I never
would have made it through the first (let alone the fourth)
book. Dobson's real talent is in presenting a genuinely likeable
character who has a great job, fun friends, and intriguing
possibilities for her personal life. Karen Pelletier is such a
compelling character that the reader forgives the occasional bit of
sloppy writing and the contrived plot devices that pepper the
series. The Karen Pelletier mysteries are as addictive as
movie-theater popcorn. If you like them, try the Kate Fansler
mysteries by Amanda Cross (which set the standard for this genre),
Veronica Stallwood's Kate Ivory novels, and Edith Skom's Beth Austin
novels. I've recently discovered but not yet had the time to read two
other authors in this genre: Carole Bugge and J.S. Borthwick.
Rating:
Summary: Solid entertainment
Review: Have you read Peyton Place? If so, you will particularly enjoy
Dobson's take on the (by today's standards) mild expose of
small-town sex and scandal and Professor Karen Pelletier's involvement
in the book's resurrection (and its author's incarceration). If the
series were only concerned with Pelletier's sleuthing skills, I never
would have made it through the first (let alone the fourth)
book. Dobson's real talent is in presenting a genuinely likeable
character who has a great job, fun friends, and intriguing
possibilities for her personal life. Karen Pelletier is such a
compelling character that the reader forgives the occasional bit of
sloppy writing and the contrived plot devices that pepper the
series. The Karen Pelletier mysteries are as addictive as
movie-theater popcorn. If you like them, try the Kate Fansler
mysteries by Amanda Cross (which set the standard for this genre),
Veronica Stallwood's Kate Ivory novels, and Edith Skom's Beth Austin
novels. I've recently discovered but not yet had the time to read two
other authors in this genre: Carole Bugge and J.S. Borthwick.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best Karen Pelletier Novel to Date
Review: I read this book when it was below zero, and thought that the title was especially appropriate for a cold January in New England. The source of the quote is even more interesting: "Our American professors like their literature clear and cold and pure and very dead." -- Sinclair Lewis Cold and Pure and Very Dead is the fourth volume in Professor Joanne Dobson's series about Professor Karen Pelletier. In Quieter than Sleep, readers first met the professor. Doctor Pelletier found herself pregnant as a teen in high school, and dropped out of her plans to go to Smith to marry her truck driver lover. After a difficult pregnancy and marital abuse, she put her life together to raise her daughter as a single Mom while pursuing her academic career. Finally finding love with a cop in New York, she abandoned him to follow her desire for a career to settle at tony, elite Enfield College in New England. Arriving at Enfield, she became the new kid on the English department block sharing responsibilities for 19th century American literature with an aggressive, pompous womanizer who wanted to discuss more than literature with her. She found herself attracted to all the wrong men, and attracted attention from men she would rather avoid. Ah well, back to those term papers! In The Northbury Papers, the professor has an unusual stroke of luck that makes her career prospects much brighter. In The Raven and the Nightingale, she makes an important literary discovery and explores the nature of originality. The primary appeal of the series is that Professor Dobson has created a memorable character who will resonate with all those who question pretension. Those who liked Quieter than Sleep, The Northbury Papers, or The Raven and the Nightingale will probably like Cold and Pure and Very Dead as well. I recommend reading Quieter than Sleep before this book because the characters and the context won't make as much sense without having read that book first. Otherwise, you may find this book to be an average literary mystery. This book is almost a spoof and reveals a very promising sense of humor by the author that takes full flight in the next book in the series. As the author points out in acknowledgments, this book owes an intellectual debt to Ms. Grace Metalious's Peyton Place and Ms. Jane Tompkin's critical question "but is it any good?" in Sensational Designs. While being interviewed by an easily bored young reporter from the New York Times, Professor Pelletier answers his throw-away final question about what is the greatest book of the 20th century by naming a popular 50's potboiler of small town scandals in New England called Oblivion Falls. Perversely, with this attention the book becomes a best seller again. That fact simply amuses the professor about the quirks of commercial publishing until the reporter ends up dead in the driveway of the author's home. The professor is once again pulled in to help with the "literary" aspects of the mystery, and teams with Lieutenant Charlie Piotrowski to find the killer. In the process, they learn that Oblivion Falls contains clues to an earlier crime and make progress in solving that one as well. Selections from the fictional Oblivion Falls are nicely interspaced through the book in an interesting way to give the book two story lines at different times. This book is for anyone who has ever enjoyed a good romance novel involving scandalous behavior. There are several love stories in the book, and they show the gamut from mere attraction to powerful mutual commitment. As usual in the series, the mystery isn't very hard to solve. The clues are carved as clearly into the text as the faces of the presidents are on Mount Rushmore. If the mystery had been disguised better, I would have rated this book at five stars. As I finished the book, I found myself thinking about what the best measure of writing is: Its immediate impact on others, the number of people who read it or its lasting influence? What do you think?
Rating:
Summary: The Best Karen Pelletier Novel to Date
Review: I read this book when it was below zero, and thought that the title was especially appropriate for a cold January in New England. The source of the quote is even more interesting: "Our American professors like their literature clear and cold and pure and very dead." -- Sinclair Lewis Cold and Pure and Very Dead is the fourth volume in Professor Joanne Dobson's series about Professor Karen Pelletier. In Quieter than Sleep, readers first met the professor. Doctor Pelletier found herself pregnant as a teen in high school, and dropped out of her plans to go to Smith to marry her truck driver lover. After a difficult pregnancy and marital abuse, she put her life together to raise her daughter as a single Mom while pursuing her academic career. Finally finding love with a cop in New York, she abandoned him to follow her desire for a career to settle at tony, elite Enfield College in New England. Arriving at Enfield, she became the new kid on the English department block sharing responsibilities for 19th century American literature with an aggressive, pompous womanizer who wanted to discuss more than literature with her. She found herself attracted to all the wrong men, and attracted attention from men she would rather avoid. Ah well, back to those term papers! In The Northbury Papers, the professor has an unusual stroke of luck that makes her career prospects much brighter. In The Raven and the Nightingale, she makes an important literary discovery and explores the nature of originality. The primary appeal of the series is that Professor Dobson has created a memorable character who will resonate with all those who question pretension. Those who liked Quieter than Sleep, The Northbury Papers, or The Raven and the Nightingale will probably like Cold and Pure and Very Dead as well. I recommend reading Quieter than Sleep before this book because the characters and the context won't make as much sense without having read that book first. Otherwise, you may find this book to be an average literary mystery. This book is almost a spoof and reveals a very promising sense of humor by the author that takes full flight in the next book in the series. As the author points out in acknowledgments, this book owes an intellectual debt to Ms. Grace Metalious's Peyton Place and Ms. Jane Tompkin's critical question "but is it any good?" in Sensational Designs. While being interviewed by an easily bored young reporter from the New York Times, Professor Pelletier answers his throw-away final question about what is the greatest book of the 20th century by naming a popular 50's potboiler of small town scandals in New England called Oblivion Falls. Perversely, with this attention the book becomes a best seller again. That fact simply amuses the professor about the quirks of commercial publishing until the reporter ends up dead in the driveway of the author's home. The professor is once again pulled in to help with the "literary" aspects of the mystery, and teams with Lieutenant Charlie Piotrowski to find the killer. In the process, they learn that Oblivion Falls contains clues to an earlier crime and make progress in solving that one as well. Selections from the fictional Oblivion Falls are nicely interspaced through the book in an interesting way to give the book two story lines at different times. This book is for anyone who has ever enjoyed a good romance novel involving scandalous behavior. There are several love stories in the book, and they show the gamut from mere attraction to powerful mutual commitment. As usual in the series, the mystery isn't very hard to solve. The clues are carved as clearly into the text as the faces of the presidents are on Mount Rushmore. If the mystery had been disguised better, I would have rated this book at five stars. As I finished the book, I found myself thinking about what the best measure of writing is: Its immediate impact on others, the number of people who read it or its lasting influence? What do you think?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent academic mystery
Review: In Western Massachusetts, Enfield College English professor Karen Pelletier knows that New York Times art reporter Martin Katz is bored with her. Katz, wanting to end the interview, provides a final throwaway question, what is the greatest twentieth century English novel. A facetious Karen replies the 1957 best-selling "Oblivion Falls" by Mildred Deakin. Not only is that novel mentioned in the paper, but soon Oprah discovers it too. "Oblivion Falls" becomes a best seller again. Not long afterward, Karen receives a visit from two New York State Police Officers. Apparently, someone killed Katz in the driveway of an elderly recluse, Millie Finch, in Nelson Corners. Millie once wrote under the nom de plume of Mildred Deakin. After finishing their grilling of Karen, the two cops leave and her old "sleuthing" buddy Massachusetts Statie Piotrowski arrives to make sure the professor butts out of the investigation. However, with the encouragement of her daughter, Karen joins the case as an unwanted voluntary literary investigator only to learn that the lurid subplots of "Bolivian Falls" really happened. The fourth Professor Pelletier mystery is an amusing, well-written amateur sleuth tale. The story line is fun as the courageous Karen investigates another homicide, but this time away from the college. Karen is a fabulous lead character and the remaining cast divides into three groups: academia, law enforcement, and literary. Each group augments the plot while providing insight into Karen's personality. Sub-genre fans will want to read Joanne Dobson's newest novel because it is simply very entertaining. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Dobson should be more popular
Review: The mix of academic world and mystery--with high-brow elements and down-to-earth humor--in her Karen Pelletier stories should be compelling more readers toward Joanne Dobson. I discovered these mysteries after searching for something with a central female character and experiencing great disappointment from some other, better-selling authors. This is one of Dobson's best!
Rating:
Summary: Cold and Pure and Very Good
Review: This is the fourth "bibliomystery" featuring Karen Pelletier, an associate professor in English at Enfield College. In this mystery, OBLIVION FALLS, a best-selling book from the 1950s (loosely based on the novel PEYTON PLACE--remember how shocking *that* novel was??), is the catalyst for murder and mayhem when a reporter is murdered in the driveway of the reclusive author. Karen, intrepid amateur detective who, in her mind, is trained in literary research and is thus qualified to help the police solve this murder and another that follows. This was a good entry in the woman detective genre and I really liked it, especially the first half. The author, an associate English professor at Fordham University, is very witty and does well at exposing the pretentiousness (is that a word??) and politics that are intrinsic to many academic settings. Some of her lines are hilarious especially when some of Karen's windbag colleagues get self-important and verbose. Unfortunately, the second half got a little long and I find it annoying when homicide detectives actually use the amateur's help in solving the mystery. This seems to be a frequent occurrence in these kinds of mysteries. But I'm nit-picking. I did enjoy the author's writing style and will probably go back and read the previous titles in this series, especially THE RAVEN AND THE NIGHTINGALE, with Edgar Allen Poe's works as part of the mystery.
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