When a Middle Eastern Studies professor is found dead from a fall from his office window, it is quickly determined that the incident could neither be suicide nor accident and Kate Fansler is asked by the administration to look into the matter, as she had been known to solve seemingly unfathomable crimes in the past. But the more she investigates, the more she finds herself burdened with numerous unconnected bits of information - about the professor’s general unlikeability, the grants received to create a department of Middle Eastern studies, the agitation of Black students on a quest for more Black professors, the way that the roles of women in administration and scholarship had changed and not changed over the years - and the more difficult it becomes to see a solution…. This is the ninth Kate Fansler novel, published in 1990, and it’s a short one this time, only 142 pages. As sometimes happens with these books, I found Kate very annoying this time around, far too intent on making witty remarks and only coming to an answer through an intuitive leap that is not adequately described at all (although I guessed the guilty party fairly early on). But mostly I was irritated by this edition, from Bello (an imprint of MacMillan) published in 2018, because there are tons of errors scattered throughout, ranging from an arbitrary profusion of commas (Ms. Cross used a lot of them, but she used them correctly, not for example by “I, was…” and the like), missing words (“I would not want know”) and other errors that would have been easily fixed if anyone had proofread the thing. Most of all, though, is this disclaimer found on the copyright page: “This book remains true to the original in every way. Some aspects may appear out-of-date to modern-day readers. Bello makes no apology for this, as to retrospectively change any content would be anachronistic and undermine the authenticity of the original.” I mean, seriously? The publisher felt a need in 2018 to remind readers that the book was originally published in 1990 and therefore may not reflect 2018 attitudes and mores? How insulting to modern readers is that?! ( )

I registered this book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14707891

An enjoyable light mystery, starring Kate Fansler, college prof and amateur detective.

Fansler is approached by a gang of administrators at her college, asking her help in solving the mystery of the death of a fellow professor. The victim was tossed out of the window of his office, several floors above the concrete below. As Canfield Adams was not well-liked, the array of suspects was wide. Including Kate herself, who happened to have an iron-clad alibi.

Kate interviews acquaintances, family members (including a widow who didn't hide her avarice), anyone who knew anything about the prof. Sifting through the many different possible motives took some time.

Kate is intelligent and witty in a good way, which made the book fun to read.
( )

another talky Kate Fenshaw

All of Kate Fansler's friends have the exact same voice. They speak with a massively complex sentence structure, are very self-referential and ironic. In short, they speak just as any good professor of English would do.

But one of the main elements of Amanda Cross I enjoy is a sort of literate superiority. In a lot of the earlier books, you definitely get the impression that anyone who didn't know exactly what James Joyce was writing about in Ulysses would never be able to solve the mystery. That feeling doesn't continue through to this book, unless you count Kate's point near the end of the book, that she never would have been able to solve the mystery without focusing on the narrative necessities. Certainly a strategy I've been known to use, but I've not had a character come out quite so bluntly and say it before.

I felt that the story started slowly, but sped up to pace in the middle. There's no ambiguity in the final resolution, although I don't think sufficient clues were provided to solve the mystery. There are many interesting characters, and there's something of a surprise ending that is worthwhile. Even if you've never read Ulysses, this book is a good intellectual read. ( )