jmc_bks

Years ago, long before I blogged or really did much on the internet (those days are vague in my memory -- how did I find any good books to read without reader/bloggers?), one of the mystery series I enjoyed was Joanne Dobson's Karen Pelletier series. Pelletier is an English professor at a small, private college in western Massachusetts, who somehow gets entangled in literary mysteries. Being easily distracted, I had forgotten about this series since the last book was released back in 2003. At the time, Dobson changed publishers from Bantam to Poisoned Pen Press. [Back then I would not have questioned a publisher change; today, given slightly more knowledge of the publishing industry and the precarious situation of midlist authors, I would wonder if Bantam had declined to renew her contract due to low sales. The series deserves much more attention than it has received.] Anyway, I was reminded of this series earlier this week, so I checked to see if Dobson, an English professor at Fordham University, was still writing fiction. Lo and behold, the sixth Karen Pelletier mystery was published this past January! And today a copy of Death Without Tenure arrived on my doorstep.

In addition to Death Without Tenure, a copy of The Annotated Persuasion arrived. No, I'm not going to tell you how many copies of Persuasion I own. It embarrasses me a little. But obviously not enough to keep me from buying this annotated edition.