Joanne Dobson--Writer, Teacher, Speaker

In classic noir tradition, English professor Karen Pelletier gains a client when her office door opens and a famous crime novelist enters. The author is dogged by Trouble, a Rottweiler, and by a problem. And since the tough-gal celebrity writer, Sunnye Hardcastle, is keynote speaker at the upcoming Enfield College Women's Studies conference on Crime Fiction, Karen is hooked.

Little does she expect a priceless manuscript to be stolen from the college library, the thief to be found dead in the library's closed stacks, and her famous client to be suspected of both crimes. All this occurs smack dab in the middle of a feminist conference on the crime novel, and Karen must use her investigative skills to detect which of the many conferees has set out to Deconstruct Death.