Amanda Cross is the pseudonym of Carolyn Heilbrun (1926 - 2003). Heilbrun was a professor of English at Columbia University until she retired in 1993. Throughout her career, and after her retirement, she wrote scholarly books in her field. But she had a secret sideline, she was also a mystery writer.
In 1964, she began writing mystery stories using a pseudonym. Her main character is Kate Fansler, a professor of English at a New York college, who is independently wealthy, and who becomes involved in mysteries of a literary -- and of a feminist -- nature. Some times there are murders involved, at other times she is just investigating mysterious disapperances.
There are 14 Kate Fansler novels, and 9 short stories featuring her. All of the stories are collected in The Collected Stories, as well as one extra featuring a "one off" story, to bring the number of stories in the anthology to ten. Cross began writing these stories for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in 1987.
In order to fully appreciate these stories, you do reallly need to know a little bit about Kate Fansler's background, or at least, the style in which Cross writes. The stories are very literary, and the characters act in ways that [probably] real life people would not act (but who knows, in today's times?)
If you are a fan of Isaac Asimov's Black Widower stories, you will probably like these. Asimov also, particularly later in the series, used the slightest of hooks on which to hang one of those stories. (I'm not damning with faint praise...they are still fun to read, but again, they are stories taht just wouldn't happen in real life. But that's why we love them!)
Tania's Nowhere - Kate Fansler's niece Leighton narrates this story, inthe manner of Watson sharing the explots of Holmes. Leighton is supposed to be in her early twenties and has the precise prose of a woman in her 60s, the only drawback on that score. However, the story itself is disapppointing - the weakest one in the collection. It has elements of one of Cross's novels, No Word From Winifred. Tania Finslip, a 62-year old happily married college professor, has disappeared, and no one can find her, until Kate figures out the mystery. I found the denoument unconvincing.
The rest of the stories are more agreeable, if not more realistic.
Once Upon A Time - A family is staying in a house for the summer in a nice, safe residential area. Four children are playing a game of badminton in the yard, when a toddler comes out of the woods and toward them, clad only in diaper and shirt. The children take the baby into the house, and the parents decide to give it to a childless couple whom they know. Twenty years later, the toddler comes to Kate Fansler to find out who her biological parents were, and why she was found in such odd circumstances.
Arrie and Jasper - Jasper is a dog, a Jack Russell terrier, and he's been kidnapped. Arrie is a twelve-year old girl who comes to Kate for help. Her sister, much older, had been a student of Kate's. Kate, who doesnt' like children, nevertheless likes Arrie, who is very mature for her age, and she visits Arrie's home to do a little investigating, because the mystery deepends, even as Jasper reappares. Eventually Kate finds out the truth.
The Disappearance of Great Aunt Flavia - Women in Amanda Cross stories do have a tendency to disappear without telling anyone where they're going, but these types of stories usually have happy endings, and so it is in this case. Aunt Flavia, who has learned that old women are really, invisible, unremarked and unnoticed by a society that cares only for the young, disappears. Where is she, and what is she doing? This story echoes one of the themes of another Kate Fansler novel, The Imperfect Spy, and perhaps even how Amanda Cross herself felt about society's appreciation for the young and unappreciation of the old.
Murder Without A Text - One of only two stories in the collection with a murder, it's another visitation on the theme that one old woman looks like another to the young. A Professor of English, who had been giving a class to ten students who disliked her and whom she disliked, is on trial for the murder of one of them. They all believe she's guilty. She proclaims her innocence. The reader wonders if Carolyn Heilbrun had had to deal with such students in her teaching days - they do seem incredibly rude, but in the 1970s, that's perhaps how students acted.
Who Shot Mrs. Byron Boyd - Two mystery writers, one a male chauvanist male and the other a feminist writer (not unlike Cross herself) are on a panel at a mystery convention. Mrs. Byron Boyd, the emcee, is shot from the crowd, and dies. Why? The motive for the murder seems to be too slight, but nevertheless it's a fun read.
The Proposition - Kate receives a letter from an old friend, who has now become a nun and lives in a convent in Texas. The convent has very few treasures, but one treasure they did have was a painting called "The Proposition." According to Cross, who got her information from Women Artists 1550-1950,
While paintings and prints showing men making indecent proposals to women were common in the Low Countries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a work portraying a woman who has clearly not invited such an invitation and refuses to accept ii is unique." [Readers learn such esoteric things when they read an Amanda Cross work!]
The painting has disappeared, and Kate's friend asks her to help them get it back. Kate eventually succeeds.
The George Elliot Play - Most mystery novels that deal with found plays usually deal with a Shakespeare play - finding a lost one would be worth a fortune - but Amanda Cross, ever the feminist, chooses as the engine of her story a George Elliot play. It's fun.
The Baroness - The final story in the collection, and the only on e not to feature Kate Fansler. Instead, it is a first person narrative by Anne, who has been the lifelong friend of Phyllida, a woman who is now a British peer. Phyllida summons her to England, where she tells her friend that she is the accidental possessor of a stolen painting. How can she return it to its rightful owner. A story that may - just may - have been plausible in the 80s and even 90s, but is impossible now, with the strictures of search that most plane travelers have to got through these days... still, another fun story.
In The Last Analysis (1964)
The James Joyce Murder (1967)
Poetic Justice (1970)
The Theban Mysteries (1971)
The Question of Max (1976)
Death in a Tenured Position (1981)
Sweet Death, Kind Death (1984)
No Word From Winifred (1986)
A Trap for Fools (1989)
The Players Come Again (1990)
An Imperfect Spy (1995)
The Collected Stories (1997)
The Puzzled Heart (1998)
Honest Doubt (2000)
The Edge of Doom (2002)
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