Amanda Cross, the pseudonym for Carolyn G. Heilbrun, is the author of the Kate Fansler series. Ms. Heilbrun is a professor at Columbia University. Legend has it that she kept her writing identity a secret until she was granted tenure in 1972. Kate, her alter ego, is also an English professor. The series is intelligent with plenty of literary allusions. In my experience, readers either love the books or hate them. The first book in the series, In the Last Analysis, is a bit jarring. You are dropped into Kate's world without the benefit of a proper introduction to her or her colleagues and friends. Death in a Tenured Position, the sixth book in the series, was the winner of a Nero Wolfe award. The series is now up to thirteen books. The Puzzled Heart, released in 1998, revolves around the kidnapping of Reed, Kate's husband, and focuses on Kate's feminist views. The latest book, Honest Doubt, released in 2000, will be available in paperback in December. A new character (a new series?) is introduced in this book. "Woody" Woodhaven is a former New York defense attorney who's decided she prefers the private investigator's life, with its independence and authority. Clifton College has hired Woody to find out who has killed Professor Charles Haycock, a conceited old bigot whose love of Tennyson was matched only by his hatred of women. Baffled by the abstruse jargon and petty territoriality of the English department suspects, Woody turns to Kate Fansler for help.
If you like Kate Fansler, intelligent conversation and literary allusions, then I suspect you will really like Beth Austin, English professor at Midwestern University. The series is written by Edith Skom, a Northwestern University professor. The series starts with The Mark Twain Murders. Beth joins forces with an FBI agent to investigate the thefts of valuable first editions from the university's library. Privately, Beth investigates plagiarism of an obscure essay for a term paper. This book was nominated for an Agatha, a Macavity, and an Anthony award. The George Eliot Murders, the next book in the series, takes Beth and George Eliot's Middlemarch to a vacation in Hawaii. The accidental death of another guest at the hotel is a shock and nibbles at Beth's mind. Then she stumbles upon a gruesome murder and can't help but get involved. The Charles Dickens Murders revolves around an unsolved murder and love triangle that her mother was involved with at the University of Chicago fifty years ago. The killer strikes again in New York, half a century later. This book is a wonderful mystery, expertly woven with the past and the present stories.
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