The Question of Max

Kate Fansler Mystery #5

by Amanda Cross

When professor and amateur sleuth Kate Fansler accompanies a fussy friend to the rocky coast of Maine to peruse the papers of a famous, recently deceased author, she is horrified to come across one of her students, dead. Which leads her to one very important question, namely, would Max stoop so low as to murder...?

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Academia, Mystery Thriller, Womens, New York

219 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

A psuedonym of Carolyn G. Heilbrun.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kate is enjoying some time at the cabin Reed gave her, a refuge from the city, when she spots an unwelcome intruder heading through the weeds toward her front door. Max begs Kate to drive him to Maine to the coastal home of a recently deceased author on the pretense that someone may have broken in. He is the executor of the will and chosen biographer of said lady author and Max claims he cannot drive.

The discovery in Maine of a body, one of Kate's students, is particularly challenging... as well as other signs of things not quite right. This is the kickoff of a complex set of problems for Kate to unravel and puts her in a very vulnerable position. It leads to a trip to Oxford where she spends two weeks studying the correspondence of the author, but she also gets to visit a friend there.

Along with lies and threats from her "friend" Max, she also has been lodging Leo, her nephew, and giving him parental support during his senior year that is sensationally eventful.

It's a great set of problems to solve and if it were not for Reed, it could have been her final breath.

in Oxford: "Kate had, in her day, punted on the Cam, walked along the backs at Cambridge, and indulged, not always religiously, in reverence in Kings College Chapel...it was a place of secrets. Each of the colleges had courts and gardens unfolding, one from the other, known only to the initiated and often open only to the invited."

In discussing the lady authors featured in this tale who went off to London to live independently: "People who know what they want are always unusual, particularly if what they want isn't to be found along one of the well-worn paths furnished by society for the use of the young."

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Amanda Cross back in my teens and decided she was too stuffily erudite to be believed. Now that I
have developed a sort of appreciation for unbelievable erudition, I can bear the very artificial (not to say recherché) (though she would) dialogue and characters. However, this particular book is just weirdly put together—the mystery seems so unreal at first (what cops would not investigate that death?) and the clues so nebulous that I could not figure out what Kate was going on about. The end is quite good, and the feminist discussions quite interesting, but there must be a better Cross book.

[Pam Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so enjoy this intelligent and elegant writer. She writes about and intelligent college professor, Kate Fansler, who quotes authors when she answers questions. The installment has her and husband Reed being a parent to her nephew Leo which involves comings and going at his prep school. Also, her friend Max invites her to go to Maine with him to look at the house of a family friend and author who has died and he is to be her literary executor. When they go to look at the ocean, they find the body of one of Kate's grad students dead on the rocks, and her the "mystery" begins as Kate does not believe her death was an accident. Not to give away the plot, Kate becomes involved in examining the papers of the author and her friends in the hope of seeing how her student fit in. The plot takes some twists, especially in the last few pages of the book that was totally not expected. I love how this author writes and have enjoyed all of her novels up to now which are written very differently from most mysteries.

[Writerlibrarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting with an ironic twist. I liked it. Très littéraire. Even if the writers that are featured in the book are fictional you kinda want them not be so you can read Dorothy's novel or Cecily's last book. Kate Fansler is still one of the coolest heroine in the mystery genre I know. In this novel, we find Kate trying out "parenting" since her now quite grown up nephew Leo (first seen in the James Joyce Murders) on the verge of college, the moral dilemma of being true to oneself despite the cost. It also gives an unusual view of friendship. Not a flamboyant plot, more a solid and steady one.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the first two books in this series many, many years ago. This book was written and 1976 and certainly shows its age. I found four books at a used book sale and thought I would finish them.

I found this one a bit too scholarly/literary/pedantic for my taste.

I was going to read the next book, Sweet Death, Kind Death, but found the plot too similar to this one.

I think I will skip the rest of the series.

[Nancy Brady · Rating 3 out of 5]

A twisted literary mystery of a dead college student, but was her death accidental or murder? Literary scholar and amateur sleuth Kate Fansler sets out to find out. Looking into the literary comings-and-goings of author Cecily Hutchins and her friends may help solve this mystery, but her friend Max isn't so happy about her snooping.

What does she discover out, and will her curiosity kill the kitty Kate?

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is good diversion...kind of a cozy, almost. But more well-written than most, and with academic acerbity that Carolyn Heilbrun brought to her pseudonym. This was especially fun, because it travels to two of my favorite places...the rocky coast of Maine, and Oxford, where she even visits some pubs that were among our favorites when we were there.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intelligent and educated woman writing about an educated and intelligent woman. I found it a bit slow in the middle and slightly contrived at the end but all in all a book well worth reading if you enjoy literate mysteries.

[Alison C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Professor Kate Fansler is flattered and curious when her friend, the urbane and extremely snobbish Max Reston (“younger son of a younger son of a duke”) asks her to accompany him to the home of a recently deceased literary author, whose literary executor he has become; it turns out that neighours have sighted intruders at the cottage and Max is afraid to go by himself. When they reach the Maine house by the sea, Kate is determined to climb the rocks down to the beach, but her determination is shattered when she comes across a corpse in a tidepool; worse, it turns out to be the body of a student she knew, who was working on a doctorate somewhat related to the deceased author. In spite of herself, Kate is drawn to further inquiries to resolve the matter, even if she must travel to Oxford to do so…. This is, I think, the fifth novel in the Kate Fansler series, and as ever it gleams with tidbits about the academic life, along with feminism in the 1970s - and, in this case, we also get a look into prep-school level basketball! I enjoyed this outing, although the actual mystery didn’t require much work to figure out; as a slice of life in that time period, it’s a very compelling and enjoyable read. Recommended!

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Currently rereading this great series.
This is one of my least favorite books in the series. I don't know why, exactly - I like all the books, but this one just doesn't rivet me as much. Maybe it's a bit lower-key than the others. Kate's friend Max shows up unannounced at the "solitude house" in the country given to her by Reed for when she needs alone time. He asks her to go to Maine with him to check the house of a recently deceased author for whom he is the literary executor - supposedly prowlers have been seen. She goes along with it, driving him in her car. The house on the Maine coast seems fine, the papers are all there as is a painting, with no sign of burglary. They take a walk down to view the sea, and Kate spots a body on the beach, who eventually turns out to be one of her graduate students. She has apparently fallen from the rocks, hit her head, and drowned in a puddle of sea water. For the rest of the novel, Kate veers between thinking of the letters of that author and also those of a friend of the author, and wondering about her former student. During a visit to Oxford, she reads some of the letters that have been stored there, and starts also wondering about Max himself.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I work my way through the Amanda Cross mysteries during this era of sheltering at home, I am reminded how history repeats itself over and over. The Question of Max is about a conservative, misogynistic, and stodgy academic named Max who ropes/manipulates Kate Fansler into an adventure that unfolds throughout the book. The story takes place during the era of Nixon's Watergate. The literary characters (as there are always literary characters) are a set of progressive women from the era of Bloomsbury.

So, imagine this, I found myself in 2020 reading a story set a bit less than 50 years earlier with much focus on characters from 100 years earlier.

Liberals and conservatives. Men who marry smart women with minds of their own, and others who would prefer theirs to act as a servant or geisha (Cross' word, not mine). Crooks in the White House. College entrance scandals. The details change but the conflicts remains the same.

[Jaana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sattumalta huomasin, että Amanda Cross, jonka kirjasta 3213 heinäpaalia, aikanaan kovasti tykkäsin, on kirjoittanut muitakin dekkareita. Kirjastosta löytyi tämä, alunperin 1976 USAssa ilmestynyt kirja, jossa myös on päähenkilönä englannin kielen professori Kate Fansler. Dekkariksi kirja on kyllä aika hankala, ensimmäinen puolikas kuluu ilman oikeastaan tietoakaan rikoksesta. Sen sijaan puhetta riittää kirjallisuudesta, yliopistojen valintakokeista, feminismistä, Watergatesta ja taas kirjallisuudesta. Kate Fansler tuntuu puhuvan suureksi osaksi kirjallisuussitaatein, mikä tekee jutusta entistä sekavamman. Oli kuitenkin kiinnostavaa lukea amerikkalaisesta naistutkimuksesta 1970-luvulla. Kuten Kate, myös minä olen jonkin verran anglofiili, ja nautin kovasti jaksosta jossa hän matkustaa Oxfordiin ja istuu päivät jumalaisessa Bodleianin kirjastossa.

[Jan Priddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely my favorite so far.

Heilbrun's blue stockings show clearly in this one, and though I still find her and Kate's elitism irritating at times, this is an excellent story. (And I am pleased by the feminism.) I kept thinking of the tiny changes that would be necessary to bring it up to date in a film version. Not tricky.

The literary and school connections were entertaining, the digs at the College Board (SATs) were very much appreciated and the prep school student hiring a smarter student to take his SATs was a hoot, given recent revelations about that awful man in the White House.

I read Death in a Tenured Position many years ago and re-reading I might like it better, but of the four read this year, this is the finest. I can recommend it. I do recommend it.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this one, having gone off Amanda Cross some years ago, and so I was really happy at this elegant pirouette of a murder mystery, from New York to Maine to Oxford and back. Literary memoirs, biographies, editions of letters have their own secrets, some that can be lethal, and meanwhile a nephew in the middle of a private school cheating dilemma adds to the moral thread of the whole thing. But, basically, just a thoughtful and fun read, dwelling a lovely time on friendship and its different flavors. To re-read!

[Bonnie Fazio · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am entering this many years later, after finding a list of books I needed to read for a Friends of Mystery conference, at which Amanda Cross (aka Carolyn Heilbrun) was to appear. I don't remember it well, but do remember liking her books somewhat. Educated guess as to the year I read it.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Kate Fansler, on a quick visit with another professor to the Maine home of a recently deceased feminist writer, discovers the body of one of her graduate students, she feels compelled to look into her death.

[Susan Mock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can I like the way the book was written more than the plot and characters? So far, I will read or reread the rest of them. Actually, I really like Kate and Reed.

[Mydonna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had problems staying focused and staying engaged (and staying awake.

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 2 out of 5]

A simple ride by friends to the home of a recently deceased writer becomes definitely more complicated when intrepid literature professor Kate Fansler discovers the body of one of her graduate students.

And Falser, who never seems to do research or teach, is soon like a dog after a bone. There's a mystery afoot and she is after it ... but she is not sure what that is. She can't get the death of the young woman out of her head but she isn't even sure if it is really murder. And then there is something else that is bugging her but we haven't a clue what except that it will send Kate to England and back before she puts forth a theory with little to support it.

Every time I read one of these books by Amanda Cross, I am reminded squarely that they are from an earlier time period and while I enjoy them, they do seem dated because of the give and take that the main character Kate Fansler has with everyone else. I don't know how she came to the conclusions that she did and it seems all slap hazard overall.

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cross does interesting things with pacing; one knows there must be a mystery because, after all, it is a mystery novel. But the early disrupting event (the discovery of the dead body on the rocks seems not to be a mystery at all, and so the book goes along, showing life in New York City in the mid-70s, with family tangles and literary drama, and then slowly the mystery is revealed -- or is it? The 'question' of the title is very much how the book is, the question of whether or not there is an actual mystery in the first place. All of that, and a glimpse at female authors of the 20s and 30s, sadly invented ones -- but they had to be invented for the plot to work. Dorothy Whitmore is, I am fairly certain, built upon Winifred Holtby, and Whitemore's imaginary novel did make me want to read South Riding.

[Margaret]

This was a different sort of cozy where we're not sure if there's even been a crime committed - high-brow literary professor Kate Fansler thinks there is and comes up with a scenario. I had read another book by this author (Death in a Tenured Position) with this character and I liked her much better in that - in this story she comes off a little snobby and stuck-up, much like the other main character, Max. Most of the story was not set in Maine unfortunately. This was okay, just didn't grab me much.

[Pamster · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why did I read this? I guess because it was a Virago edition and Virago's cool, I rarely read mysteries and thought I'd try it, and the back of the book mentioned that the clues to the mystery were buried "in the lives of leading women novelists and feminists." I dunno.

[Kestrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really delightful book, my favorite so far in this series (which I am reading out of order). A definite must-read for the sort of bookish female who loves novels set in Oxford, although Kate only visits Oxford briefly in the novel.

[Susanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mä en kyllä saanut tästä kirjasta mitään irti ja pidin suomennoksen kieltäkin huonona (tiedä sitten millaista se on alkuteoksessa ollut). No, tulipa luettua, jatkossa tosin tämän kirjailijan tuotantoon tuskin tartun.

[Caroline Kubale · Rating 4 out of 5]

MTK

[Cyn McDonald · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars. Solution was fairly obvious.

[Andy Plonka · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quite good literary mystery written before the digital age really got going so no dependence on email, computers, cell phones etc.

[Ann Moody · Rating 4 out of 5]

As others note, the whole thing reads like a highly educated English professor thinks and reads. Either you are okay with it or you are not.