title: Cold and Pure and Very Dead: A Karen Pelletier Mystery
author:  Joanne Dobson 
description: Karen Pelletier, assistant professor of English at prestigious Enfield College in Massachusetts, has opened a can of 44-year-old worms by telling <I>New York Times</I> writer Marty Katz that, in her opinion, <I>Oblivion Falls</I> was the greatest literary work of the past century.
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  THE HIRED HERO
  
  Andrea Pickens
  
  [About the Author](index_split_003.html#filepos467361)
  
  [Publishing Information](index_split_004.html#filepos468423)
  
  * * *
  
  Chapter 1
  
  “Is everything alright, Lady Caroline?”
  
  The young lady in question had fairly torn open the letter right in the
  entrance hall of the imposing manor house in her haste to know its contents.
  Errant ringlets of honey-colored curls, still damp from the exertion of a hard
  morning gallop over the fields, obscured part of her face but couldn’t hide
  the furrow that slowly creased her brow as she skimmed the pages.
  
  A look of grave concern came over the butler’s craggy face as the furrow
  deepened. He cleared his throat and spoke again. “I trust that His Grace and
  the young viscount are...well?” He forbore to say the word “alive” but the
  slight hesitation in the question made the meaning clear enough.
  
  She raised her eyes from the travel-worn paper. Their rich emerald color,
  usually vibrant with laughter and hig