Death Without Tenure (Professor Karen Pelletier Mysteries Book 6)

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? Publishers Weekly Agatha-finalist Dobson's sixth mystery to feature English professor Karen Pelletier (after 2003's The Maltese Manuscript) earns a passing grade. Karen is up for the sole open tenure spot in her department at Massachusetts's Enfield College, but the department chairman is championing her underqualified Native American colleague, Joe Lone Wolf, which sends Karen into a dither. She also worries about her boyfriend's deployment to Iraq and her daughter's jaunt to Nepal. After someone slips Joe a fatal overdose of what may be peyote, she becomes the prime murder suspect. Plenty of other suspects emerge from the stereotypical cast of faculty and students, as Dobson trots out a plague of academic bugaboos, including drugs, false credentials, plagiarism, faculty in-fighting and hate crimes. When Karen stops dithering and starts playing detective, things heat up quickly. (Jan.) "Fans of academic mysteries will savor this one."—Library Journal 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 a tenured position. But when her rival for the one available tenured spot is found dead from an overdose of Peyote buttons, Karen is first on the list of suspects. Now a homicide cop with a grudge against Lieutenant Charlie Piotrowski, the love of Karen's life, is breathing down her neck. On campus, political passions rage, inflamed by the politically-correct English Department chair and by the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Whiteness Studies. Two of Karen's favorite students are caught up in the furor. Will Karen be able to survive the investigation, protect her students, and find a permanent niche in the world of academe, all without her beloved Charlie, now serving with the National Guard in Iraq? He will take seventeen to the match - how many will he bring back? In Cibola football is a matter of life and death. Sir Tristram must reunite his Blood City teammates - Knights, Pirates and Westerners - to win the prestigious Seskie tournament against their oldest rivals. Behind the match is a bigger power play, a king's mission to bring down his greatest rival by persuasion, trickery or force. Needing a squad of soldiers as well as footballers, Sir Tristram must also find a place on tour and in his heart for the teenage child he has not addressed by name since infancy... When her rival for a tenured spot in the English Department is found dead from an overdoes of Peyote buttons, Karen is first on the list of suspects. When her rival for a tenured spot in the English Department is found dead from an overdose of Peyote buttons, Karen is first on the list of suspects