HOUSES OF STONE-----BARBARA MICHAELS

Karen Holloway is a young professor of English. When she happens upon a privately printed volume of verse dating from the early nineteenth century, it's all in a day's work. But now she has turned up a battered manuscript bearing the same mysterious attribution, "Ismene", turns up. Karen realizes this could be the most important manuscript she has ever seen.
Karen totally immerses herself in the search for the true identity of the unknown author. She is not working alone in her quest for she has the help of her eccentric mentor, Peggy, whose historical expertise proves to be invaluable.
Being in possession of this manuscript may jeopardize Karen's life.
This is a very suspenseful novel, well written.