The Maltese Manuscript
Karen Pelletier Mystery, No. 5
By Joanne Dobson  

     Professor Karen Pelletier, who teaches at Enfield College in Massachusetts, finds herself deeply involved in crime--again. It began the day mystery author Sunnye Hardcastle walked into her office, bringing Trouble with her. Trouble was Ms. Hardcastle’s large Rottweiler and she never went anywhere without him.

     Ms. Hardcastle needed a little help with some background research for her next book, a departure from her bestselling Kit Danger series. She also had been invited to speak at a Women’s Studies conference on the history of crime fiction in America and how it looks at women. Karen agreed to help with the research.

     That night Karen collided with someone who had tried to break into the library. The thief tried again the next night, but nothing seemed to be missing. It wasn’t until Karen requested some rare mystery dime novels for the paper she was writing for the conference that the librarian found what had been stolen. Many of the volumes in the college’s collection of first edition mystery books were gone!

      Then, the first day of the conference, the rare manuscript of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, with revisions written by Hammett himself, turned up missing and the book thief was found dead in the closed stacks of the library. Karen Pelletier was faced with finding the answers to several questions. How did the man get past the alarm system? Who killed him and why? Where were the missing books? And could she find the killer before anyone else died?

      The Maltese Manuscript is another delightful mystery from Poisoned Pen Press. Karen Pelletier should have a long career of sleuthing ahead of her.

Enjoy!