Joanne Dobson--Author, Speaker, Teacher

As Professor Karen Pelletier--intrepid researcher, defender of women's rights, and soldier on the front lines of the fight for academic progress--researches the life and work of the popular nineteenth-century novelist, Mrs. Serena Northbury, she finds herself doing battle with her department chair, threatened by the chair of Enfield College's board of trustees, falling victim to the arisocratic charms of the college president--and, oh, yes, at the mercy of an unknown killer.

Will Karen publish--a previously unknown Northbury manuscript centering on a scandalous biracial romance--or will she perish? Literally.