The Maltese Manuscript

by Joanne Dobson

Book Overview

"Dobson's obvious knowledge of, and respect for, mystery and detective fiction is immense. She takes the reader on a glorious tour, describing everything from comic books to anthologies. Even the most... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590580397
• ISBN13: 9781590580394
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Amusing, Well Plotted, Academic Mystery..

It seems that some rare books are disappearing from the local college library. Meanwhile, our intrepid tenure- seeking lady professor meets with a famous Lady Mystery Writer, and her very large dog, suitably named TROUBLE. And a conference is to commence on WOMEN IN MYSTERY FICTION. So the Prof must escort the famous hard-boiled author to this conference. Meanwhile, a dead body appears in the library, which puts a damper on both the college and the conference. In the burgeoning field of academic/lady sleuth mysteries, this is among the top! So if you're a mystery fan looking for great laughs (mainly at certain academic pretentions), a good mystery, and a colorful cast of rogues and do-gooders, you can do a lot worse that reading this one!

A Wacky, Romantic Adventure Tale

I decided to characterize The Maltese Manuscript as an adventure tale because I've come to realize that Ms. Dobson's "mysteries" just cannot be characterized that way. She telegraphs who did what to whom much too clearly to see her books as mysteries. Sure, they are dead bodies, missing persons and stolen goods, but those are really just a backdrop for the comic action in this fine novel. Think of The Maltese Manuscript as a Stephanie Plum-like adventure involving libraries, academics, feminists and detective fiction authors. For long-time fans of the series, the romance of Professor Karen Pelletier and police Lieutenant Charlie Piotrowski is in full flower in this book. The complications from that romance remind me of many fine episodes of I Love Lucy. I hope that Ms. Dobson continues in this vein in future novels.The Maltese Manuscript is the fifth 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 had an unusual stroke of luck that made her career prospects much brighter. In The Raven and the Nightingale, she made an important literary discovery and explored the nature of originality. In Cold and Pure and Very Dead, the author explores what makes literature significant and finally develops the love interest between the professor and her police lieutenant sparring partner. The primary appeal of the series is that Professor Dobson has created a memorable character who will resonate with all those who question pretension. Increasingly, the other characters are becoming memorable as well.Those who liked Quieter than Sleep, The Northbury Papers, The Raven and the Nightingale, or Cold and Pure and Very Dead may not like The Maltese Manuscript as much unless they like the series mostly for its characters and academic-spoofing humor. This book is a strong departure in style from the earlier books. If you think you would like a thinking person's Stephanie Plum, then The Maltese Manuscript is probably for you.I recommend reading Quieter than Sleep before this book because the characters and the context won't make as much sens

A rare mix of spoof and cozy

In her fourth Professor Karen Pelletier mystery, Dobson gives us a Patricia Cornwell-type celebrity author as chief suspect in the murder of a rare-book thief. This adds to the fun as Karen juggles sleuthing, scruples and love life with her pursuit of tenure.Enfield College is staging a murder mystery conference, academic style (from a feminist perspective), and has assigned its demanding celebrity guest, Sunnye Hardcastle, and her muscle-bound rottweiler, Trouble, to Karen. In addition, a whole set of 19th century penny-dreadfuls Karen needs for her own "Murder in History" paper has been stolen and an inventory has turned up greater thefts, among them the original manuscript of Dashiell Hammett's "Maltese Falcon." And then, opening night, a thief is murdered in the library.Karen likes Sunnye a lot better as a suspect than as sharp-tongued celebrity and is soon at cross purposes with the cop in charge, her boyfriend, Charlie. The thief's house is a treasure-trove of rare books - all stolen - and there's lots of rare-book lore along with the diverging lines of amateur, police and private eye (an old high school pal of Karen's) investigation.Dobson keeps her wit sharp skewering every mystery genre available, as well as the academic setting, but keeps her humor from taking over the mystery, which wraps up in a neat surprise, scattering red herrings along the way. A clever balance.

This series gets better & better

I really enjoyed this installment of the series. There's always a risk when you set a mystery series in a smaller town. The author constantly has to bring new characters into the small setting and sometimes it can feel very artificial - sort of like the Ensign Smith of Star Trek - you know whenever a minor character is introduced he's going to be gone fairly soon. The small town college setting has allowed Dobson to bring in new characters in a believable manner - this time it's for a Women's Studies crime fiction seminar. Familiar characters do return, though they don't have roles as big as in previous books.I liked how Dobson skipped ahead to Karen & Charlie already being in the relationship. I get tired of the will they or won't they dance so many book series and TV shows perform. I never would do that in real life, why should I expect the characters I care about to do the same? Despite the existing relationship, there still is some tension between the two, and I think it's realistic and well done. I LOVE how Charlie made up to Karen after they had had a fight!There are missing books, a suspicious death and a man from Karen's past. I had many theories about how all of these were going to be resolved, and I was pleasantly surprised when I was mostly wrong. I don't know if Dobson needed a new publisher, but I'm glad that Poisoned Pen Press is continuing to publish this fine author.

The best Pelletier novel yet

Karen Pelletier is on the tenure track at Enfield College. She is assigned to escort a famous novelist during a seminar on campus. Sunnye is a writer of novels featuring a female private investigator and Karen has been a fan of her work for years. At the same time, valuable manuscripts and books are missing from the college library. A childhood friend is hired to look into the missing books. When a man is found dead in the library, Karen's significant other, homicide detective Charlie Piotrowski further complicates matters.I have long been a fan of this series and couldn't wait for this one to be published. I read it in one sitting on the day it arrived. The main character in the series is a college English professor, yet she seems very real and down to earth. The film noir theme of the book is very well done and keeps sneaking in when you least expect it. This novel was and incredibly quick and entertaining read.