September 29, 1997
After a semester spent avoiding the advances of a colleague, Karen Pelletier, Emily Dickinson scholar and a new professor at an elite New England college, has the bad luck of finding his body in a closet at the annual Christmas party. Assured by the police that she's not a suspect, she agrees to help the investigating officer unravel the ins and outs of campus life and is on hand when the strangled body of a missing student is discovered. Refusing to believe the second death is mere coincidence, Karen wonders what the two victims had in common. In the midst of these occurrences, Karen, whose daughter is home from college for the holidays, agrees to house a student whose academic goals have angered her possessive, controlling father. Still trying to learn where the lives of the two victims might have intersected, Karen discovers that the professor had discussed his research findings with the dead student. Retracing his steps to Harvard's Houghton Library, she finds out that a letter written long ago by the Belle of Amherst is at the root of recent crimes, a realization that puts her life and others' in mortal danger. Deftly balancing its literary and mystery elements, Dobson's debut sparkles with wit and insight into college politics. Readers academic and otherwise will look forward to the next adventure of smart and scrappy Karen Pelletier.