Doctor Rowena Halley

Love Kinsey Millhone's grit, Stephanie Plum's humor, or Spenser's wry take on academia? Check out the Doctor Rowena Halley series! "Brilliantly-written and highly entertaining, a must read..." The Prairies Book Review "A charming blend of academic inspection and social commentary that weaves an engrossing personal perspective into a blend of social observation and evolving romance." D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review During one of the worst years on record in the academic job market, newly-minted PhD Rowena Halley has, against all odds, gotten a job. For one semester. At poverty wages. In New Jersey. But with so many of her fellow PhDs bagging groceries--or worse--instead of teaching Russian, this is the best chance she has. New jobs come with a lot of stress, everyone knows that. But Rowena has more problems than just learning her way around a new campus and convincing all these Yankees that yes, she really is from Georgia. Tensions in the department are high, her family wants to know when she's going to get a decent job and a decent man, and her ex-boyfriend is as usual persona non grata with the Russian government. It's when students start coming to her for help that she really gets into trouble, though. Rowena got where she is because she wants to help people and save the world, but if she's not careful, her idealism may get her killed. Witty and suspenseful, Campus Confidential is an insider's look at the gritty underbelly of academia, where the struggles are so vicious because the stakes are so small. Only sometimes, they're a matter of life and death. *Content warning: We've got angsty adjunct professors, mouthy undergrads, a cynical Navy vet, and a career Marine all mixing it up in here. The level of adult language is significant.*

"Stark remains a brilliant observer of the academia scene"-The Prairies Book Review Love Stephanie Plum's wit, Kinsey Millhone's grit, or Spenser's wry take on academia? Try the Doctor Rowena Halley series! Loves hurts. Sometimes it kills. After the tumultuous events of the previous semester, Russian professor Rowena Halley has found a new job. This time it's a one-semester adjunct position in Charlotte, North Carolina. Not ideal, but better than no job at all. At least that's what she's telling herself. Rowena loves what she does, but love isn't always kind. Her job is keeping her broke AND three states away from her best candidate for serious boyfriend material, her ex is sending her cryptic messages from the war zone in Ukraine, and her brother has come back from Afghanistan even more messed up than before. And if that isn't enough, students are trying to draw her into their family dramas-with dangerous consequences. Everyone knows that "publish or perish" is the rule in academia, but if Rowena isn't careful, she may perish before she gets the chance to publish. Combining humor, romance, and suspense, Permanent Position gives an insider's view of the gritty backstage of higher education, where words do more than cut and all the testing is high-stakes. *Content warning: We've got angsty adjunct professors, mouthy undergrads, a cynical Navy vet, and a career Marine all mixing it up in here.

Sometimes summer flings turn deadly serious. Russian professor Rowena Halley's life finally seems to be taking a turn for the better. She has a job for the summer AND the fall, her family dramas of the past spring have settled down, and she's got a promising romance going with Alex, a fellow academic and actual American. But the course of true love rarely runs smooth. Rowena's weekend of fun and good times with Alex is disrupted when one of her students goes missing, in a town that's already had more than its fair share of missing young women. Simple flakiness, or something more sinister? Rowena teams up with the student's annoying new boyfriend to try to track her down, even as she wonders if he's really the culprit behind her disappearance. Rowena's research skills are finely honed. Hopefully her survival skills are too.