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Autographed "COLD and PURE and VERY DEAD" by Joanne Dobson, Hardcover

Item Number
113
Estimated Value
Priceless
Opening Bid
20 USD

Item Description

You are bidding on an author autographed hardcopy of:

"COLD and PURE and VERY DEAD" by Joanne Dobson

Cold and Pure and Very Dead

English professor Karen Pelletier is well known for her provocative manner and iconoclastic opinions, so it's no surprise that, when asked to name the Greatest Book of the Twentieth Century, she perversely cites a commercial blockbuster from the 1950s. A reprint version of Oblivion Falls, the only novel by Mildred Deakin who disappeared shortly after its publication, quickly becomes the hottest book around, an Oprah's Book Club selection and a New York Times bestseller.

At the height of the media frenzy, a reporter who discovers the reclusive author on a goat farm in upstate New York, is found dead in her driveway. Would the once-notorious Milly Deakin shoot to kill in order to protect her privacy? The intrepid Professor Pelletier deploys all her literary and investigative skills to exonerate the now-embattled older woman and restore her hard-won peace.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Karen Pelletier, assistant professor of English at prestigious Enfield College in Massachusetts, has opened a can of 44-year-old worms by telling New York Times writer Marty Katz that, in her opinion, Oblivion Falls was the greatest literary work of the past century.

Like Grace Metalious's 1956 cause célèbre, Peyton Place, Oblivion Falls blew the steamy lid off a respectable New England college town, made ground-breaking strides up the bestseller lists, and made a brilliant if briefly lit star of its author, the now reclusive Mildred Deakin. And now, thanks to Pelletier's intentionally provocative throwaway answer to a snooty writer's question, Oblivion Falls is back in the limelight: an Oprah's Book Club selection, at the top of the Times bestseller list, and one of Amazon.com's top 10. None of which explains why Marty Katz was found in the driveway of goat farmer Milly Finch, shot dead by a 30-30 Winchester.

"Re-e-e-ally?'" This was strange, even tragic, but so far I couldn't see any "circumstances" that linked the killing to me. "That's too bad," I said, then added, inanely, "he wrote so well."

"Did he?" the pale lieutenant asked, and exchanged another significant look with her subordinate. "Well, so did she, obviously. Write well, I mean. We haven't released this information to the general public yet, Professor, but a long time ago Milly Finch was a famous novelist. She published under the name of Mildred Deakin."

And with that, Pelletier and her longtime partner-in-solving-crime, Massachusetts State Police Lieutenant Charlie Piotrowski, are off. Nicely paced, plotted, and peopled with distractions romantic and decidedly otherwise (from campus newcomers Jake Fenton, the roguish author-in-residence, and Ralph Emerson Brooke, the fifties hipster sitting uneasily in the endowed Chair of Literary Studies, to the well-limned Milly Finch herself), this fourth entry in the Pelletier series may please newcomers most. Good as this is, Dobson's regulars have come to expect even more from Professor Pelletier. --Michael Hudson

From Publishers Weekly

Despite a promising premise, this latest Karen Pelletier mystery is more academic than smart. Pelletier, associate professor of English at prestigious Enfield College, causes a sensation by telling reporter Marty Katz that the best novel of the 20th century is Mildred Deakin's Oblivion Falls, a controversial and once-popular '50s potboiler of youthful sex and death. After Pelletier's quote appears in the New York Times, Oblivion Falls becomes an Oprah book and shoots to the top of the Times bestseller list. Deakin disappeared soon after the novel's publication; Katz spies a story and begins digging into the past. His untimely death on Deakin's doorstep in upstate New York thrusts the author (now a goat farmer) back into the limelight as the prime suspect in Katz's murder. Pelletier, who feels guilty for starting the chain of events that led to the murder, investigates. The three previous Pelletier novels (Agatha-nominated Quieter Than Sleep, etc.) have an easy, conversational tone and a sassy, engaging heroine. Unfortunately, the series seems to have run out of steam. The secondary characters have become easily recognizable stereotypes; the soft-boiled plot is formulaic and bland. The predictable confrontation between Pelletier and the two-dimensional murderer at the climax falls exceptionally flat. Agent, Deborah Schneider. (Dec. 26) Forecast: More outings like this one could threaten Karen Pelletier's shot at tenure in the mystery world. While fans of Dobson's previous novels will buy this one, most of them will be disappointed.

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