William J. Palmer (born 1943) is an American professor of English and the author of the "Mr. Dickens" series of Victorian murder mysteries. He is also the author of "The Wabash Trilogy" (2010), three novels under one cover. The trilogy includes: "The Wabash Baseball Blues", a sports novel about industrial softball; "The Red Neck Mafia", a crime novel; and "Civic Theater", a comic backstage novel. all three of these novels are set in the Wabash river valley of Indiana. Academically, Palmer has written books and articles on the nature of literary criticism and the history of film.