The Collected Stories of Amanda Cross (Kate Fansler)

Amanda Cross is master of the American literary whodunit. In her delicately menacing short fiction, assembled here in one volume, dangerous impulses seize the most unlikely individuals, and everyday existence is fast eclipsed by the bizarre. Among the compelling intrigues: The cold-blooded murder of Mrs. Byron Lloyd, shot dead during a writers' panel discussion . . . the enigma of the nameless toddler who walks out of the bushes one New England summer afternoon . . . the reappearance of a missing Constable drawing just where it can cause the most trouble . . . and other wonderful mysteries, many of which star the incomparable amateur sleuth Kate Fansler."For more than twenty-five years Amanda Cross has been blazing a trail for the rest of us to follow", declares Sara Paretsky. The New York Times Book Review adds that if by some cruel oversight you havent discovered Amanda Cross, you have an uncommon pleasure in store for you. Pleasure indeed. Amanda Cross is master of the American literary whodunit. In her delicately menacing short fiction, assembled here in one volume for the first time, dangerous impulses seize the most unlikely individuals, and everyday existence is fast eclipsed by the bizarre. With a brilliant touch as light as a butterfly's wing, Cross creates unforgettable characters who probe the baffling conundrums that seek them out: the disappearance of an unpopular university colleague, gone before anyone told her that they loved her . . . the enigma of the nameless toddler who walks out of the bushes one New England summer afternoon . . . the cold-blooded murder of Mrs. Byron Lloyd, shot dead during a writers panel discussion . . . the theft of a seventeenth-century painting from a lonely Texas convent . .. the reappearance of a missing Constable drawing just where it can cause the most trouble . . . and other wonderful mysteries, many of which star the incomparable private investigator Kate Fansler.

Amanda Cross is master of the American literary whodunit. In her delicately menacing short fiction, assembled here in one volume, dangerous impulses seize the most unlikely individuals, and everyday existence is fast eclipsed by the bizarre. Among the compelling intrigues: The cold-blooded murder of Mrs. Byron Lloyd, shot dead during a writers' panel discussion . . . the enigma of the nameless toddler who walks out of the bushes one New England summer afternoon . . . the reappearance of a missing Constable drawing just where it can cause the most trouble . . . and other wonderful mysteries, many of which star the incomparable amateur sleuth Kate Fansler.

Publishers Weekly

This slim volume of 10 short stories deftly demonstrates Cross's mastery of the nonviolent, literary puzzler. Cross is the nom de plume of Carolyn Heilbrun, who explains in her introduction that, while she prefers novels to short stories, her series character, sleuthing English professor Kate Fansler, demanded attention while Heilbrun finished her nonfiction book Writing a Woman's Life (1988). Consequently, as Cross, she wrote three of these stories in which Fansler's niece relates her aunt's adventures: Tania's Nowhere, concerns a professor who vanishes; Once Upon a Time hinges on the mysterious parentage of a student; and the lost dog of a stuffy professor's daughter animates Arrie and Jasper. While these contain a hint of academic life and no dead bodies, the more successful stories acquaint readers with unique, colorful characters and their dilemmas. In The Baroness (not a Fansler story), a New York woman is asked by her British friend to surreptitiously return a stolen artwork and then is conscripted to help catch the thief. In the most successful story (and the only previously unpublished one), The George Eliot Play, readers get a short course on the author's life as well as an ingenious mystery surrounding a resurfaced manuscript. Those who want their minds engaged in a whodunit will do well to turn to these short Cross sections. (Jan.)

Ten literary mystery stories starring Kate Fansler, academic sleuth. One is on the disappearance of a university colleague, another on the enigma of a nameless toddler who emerges from the bushes one summer afternoon, while a third is on the theft of a 17th Century painting from a Texas convent In 1987, I had faithfully promised the publisher of a Carolyn Heilbrun book that I would not work on another Kate Fansler novel until I had finished the nonfiction work then edging toward completion. Tania's nowhere Once upon a time Arrie and Jasper The disappearance of Great Aunt Flavia Murder without a text Who shot Mrs. Byron Boyd? The proposition The George Eliot play The baroness.