Karen Pelletier in
Quieter Than Sleep
by Joanne Dobson
(Published 1997)
SPOILER ALERTS

Academic institutions always provide fertile ground for murder mysteries, and Enfield College in New England is no exception. This elite college is home to a heady mix of colourful characters, big egos, sexual passions and dalliances, intellectual passions, professional rivalries and illicit relationships which are played out against the background of the fight to be the one to find a missing letter written by the 19th-century poet Emily Dickinson, a document which would lob a literary bombshell into the academic world.

And who better to lead us on this entertaining and engaging journey than one of swanky Enfield College’s own, Dr Karen Pelletier, Professor of the English Department and Emily Dickinson scholar?

Rags to riches

In Quieter Than Sleep, which is the first book of a series featuring Karen Pelletier, we discover that Karen is, in fact, far from being one of Enfield’s own. Not for her the patrician background and double-barrelled names characteristic of the college’s leading lights. Her story is in the classic Rags to Riches mode, one of the several familiar tropes which enhance the book’s lively examination of class divisions and cultural groups.

Karen was born in a non-prestigious side of the tracks, and was married with a child at 19. That put paid to her scholarship to Smith College and derailed the future she’d planned. When her abusive husband started hitting their daughter Amanda, she scooped up the child and left him.

While raising Amanda, Karen began the hard slog of night school, waitressing, jobs, loans, and low-grade teaching positions while starting to write a book on class and classical American writers. On the basis of the book, Enfield recruits her, and here she is, hobnobbing with the so-called best of them.

Cue a theme that often accompanies the Rags to Riches story. With a groan, we recognise the nagging doubt of Imposter Syndrome. Karen’s story is a fairytale come true and she has to keep reminding herself she has earned her place in academic fairyland. The feeling is beautifully summed up when she describes the college’s building with its magnificent oak wainscoting and panelled doors, which she can never enter without feeling that someone is about to hand her a soft cloth and polish to get on with the cleaning.

The Female Gaze

Most refreshingly, the point of view of the much-deplored male gaze is here replaced by the Female Gaze – and what a gaze it is. The men with whom Karen has professional and personal relationships (and even those with walk-on roles) are scrutinised and assessed by appearance, dress sense and level of attractiveness.

To be fair, she does say that she values qualities such as kindness and integrity over superficial considerations, and there is evidence of this, but the eagle-eye cast over the cut of a jacket and the shape and length of legs is much more entertaining.

The ill-fated Chair of English, Randy Astin-Berger, (what a name) pursues Karen (and others) with chat-up lines about narrative discourse and erotic sub-texts, standing too close and oblivious of the intense boredom he generates.

He wears good clothes though – get the linen jacket, nicely draped trousers and trendy running shoes. Quite the hotshot academic superstar on the make. And, says Karen, not unattractive. Enough to make you tolerate pillow talk about the narrative disallowal of desire? Nah.

Another colleague fares better on the personal relationship front. Greg Samoorian, turbulently married to a television actress, evokes another familiar trope, the When Harry Met Sally syndrome. Karen and he are good friends. We are told at the beginning about his roguish grin which flashes in his dark, bearded face, and it’s no surprise when Karen tells us that part of the reason she likes him is because he looks so good. He looks more like a docker than an academic, which suits Karen’s liking for the Springsteen vibe. It has to be said, the girl’s got taste.

She says she’s careful, that Greg’s marriage is important. When the marriage hits a rough spot, she pictures Greg in her bed, imagining the warmth and weight of his body… Do they? Don’t they? The bait dangles…

You thought Randy had an in-your-face name? Wait till you meet the college President, Avery Claiborne Cabot Mitchell. Karen tells us at once that he is everything she detests. At their first meeting, she notes, with distaste natch, his fine-boned hands and WASP good looks, the slight asymmetry of his patrician nose.

Their professional relationship moves up a level when Karen makes a spectacular appearance at the college new year party (purple silk, short skirt in case you were wondering) when the erotic charge between them is sparked and she has to remind herself that he is out of bounds. But although she is charmed by his grace and charisma, and thinks to hell with ethics, things don’t quite work out…

The man least likely…

Enter the character least likely to win any approval from Karen. When there is a murder on the Enfield campus, Lieutenant Pietrowski is assigned to the case and Karen’s first impression is that he is something of a buffoon. With a sigh of satisfaction, we settle in to watch the scales fall from her eyes, in a variant of the Initial Dislike Turns To True Love theme. Not so fast, people.

A different set of scales are weighed heavily against him. He has a bad haircut, massive shoulders and a big belly. Worst of all, he wears polyester pants. Polyester in a linen universe. Just think. The sartorial crimes come thick and fast. The elderly down jacket with feathers poking out of a seam. The ill-advised red and green festive sweater. Lots of polyester.

Then things start to change. Karen notices his smile, likes the individuality of his flat cheekbones and strong jawline and his attractively full lips. His jacket hangs more loosely, oh and it’s a new jacket, grey with pocket flaps, and he wears matching grey gloves. Heavens to Betsy, are we heading for the female version of Gee, but you’re beautiful, Miss Jones? It’s a slow burn. Something in Karen’s vision of him does shift…

The crimes are solved, and some things are left unresolved. But there are five more books in the series and a short story, each based on a different literary figure. As for the romantic figures, I’m rooting for Pietrowski. How could you not get behind someone who describes the emotional effect of Fats Domino’s Blueberry Hill? Way to go, Lieutenant. Fats is the man.