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Kate Fansler Mystery #2
The James Joyce Murder
Kate Fansler is vacationing in the sweet and harmless Berkshires, sorting through the letters of Henry James. But when her next-door neighbor is murdered, and all her houseguests are prime suspects, her idyll turns prosaic, indeed....
208 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
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338 people want to read
About the author
Amanda Cross
51 books57 followersA 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.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 87 reviews
November 24, 2019
I didn't love this book as I expected to after the first in the Kate Fansler series. It is definitely fun for fans of James Joyce, of course. The discourse is intellectual though planted within a rural setting where the residents can't understand Kate's house of guests who do not fit the norm.
Kate has been asked to assess important writings left behind by a man she had worked with by the daughter, now a nun, once a classmate of Kate's. She is also asked to care for her nephew whilst her brother and wife tour Europe, so with him comes a tutor as well as another one of her students who will assist in unearthing any stories or documents written by Joyce the world has yet to see. And then come other guests to this country house surrounded by farmers.
Now that I begin to describe the setting it all gels in my mind in a more acceptable frame but the murder is rather unique and unsettling. I will bump it up to 4 stars after all.
In one discussion with Reed, her District Attorney amour who came to the country against his own will and promptly stepped in cow, she says:
"Do you know, I'm frightfully worried about where it's going to end, and I think, far from being a mare's nest, this whole situation may well be a hornet's nest about to explode."
And it does.
Library Loan
Kate has been asked to assess important writings left behind by a man she had worked with by the daughter, now a nun, once a classmate of Kate's. She is also asked to care for her nephew whilst her brother and wife tour Europe, so with him comes a tutor as well as another one of her students who will assist in unearthing any stories or documents written by Joyce the world has yet to see. And then come other guests to this country house surrounded by farmers.
Now that I begin to describe the setting it all gels in my mind in a more acceptable frame but the murder is rather unique and unsettling. I will bump it up to 4 stars after all.
In one discussion with Reed, her District Attorney amour who came to the country against his own will and promptly stepped in cow, she says:
"Do you know, I'm frightfully worried about where it's going to end, and I think, far from being a mare's nest, this whole situation may well be a hornet's nest about to explode."
And it does.
Library Loan
February 10, 2021
Really really awful mystery story.
This book is 175 pages long. The mystery didn't even start until almost page 70. That is FORTY PERCENT OF THE DAMN BOOK that is just comprised of exposition and awful dialogue and background info on the background info on the background info. This could've been done in one chapter. Two chapters max. It was a painful intro to the book (and by intro I mean nearly half).
The dialogue in this book, by the way... it's a joke, it's so bad. Everybody talks like an extremely verbose English lit professor. You can read this book without knowing anything about James Joyce but you'll sure miss 90% of the references and hate most of the characters who are seemingly obsessed with it. "My, this is just like (famous book reference)!" "Of course, it's almost more like (other famous book reference)!" That, except with ten extra sentences added in to say the same thing.
Hell, even the small town cop character (who also never played any role whatsoever after his dramatic introduction) had like favorite Victorian verses and opinions on historic poetry and shit. Come on. Shut up.
The main red herring character was completely random and was not well presented as a false lead. You knew it wasn't them. And their real reason for doing things, when revealed, was completely random and out of the blue and then you just never even heard from them again.
Let me say again how bad the dialogue was. On every page. "Now you've immersed me in the midst of an awful qualm!" yeah ok that's exactly how a young woman talks in the 60s, sure.
The murder itself was out of the blue and stupidly unmotivated even at the end when the loose excuse for the "motivation" is revealed, and it's just bizarre enough to take you out of the story entirely. And you kinda always knew who did it because the method makes it really damn obvious. The only reason you're not sure is because the book is so bad that you think, hm, maybe the author will invent some equally bad mechanism to explain how someone else could've improbably done this? But no, it's just dull.
Really boring, awful book. Would not read again or recommend, and will never pick up another Amanda Cross.
This book is 175 pages long. The mystery didn't even start until almost page 70. That is FORTY PERCENT OF THE DAMN BOOK that is just comprised of exposition and awful dialogue and background info on the background info on the background info. This could've been done in one chapter. Two chapters max. It was a painful intro to the book (and by intro I mean nearly half).
The dialogue in this book, by the way... it's a joke, it's so bad. Everybody talks like an extremely verbose English lit professor. You can read this book without knowing anything about James Joyce but you'll sure miss 90% of the references and hate most of the characters who are seemingly obsessed with it. "My, this is just like (famous book reference)!" "Of course, it's almost more like (other famous book reference)!" That, except with ten extra sentences added in to say the same thing.
Hell, even the small town cop character (who also never played any role whatsoever after his dramatic introduction) had like favorite Victorian verses and opinions on historic poetry and shit. Come on. Shut up.
The main red herring character was completely random and was not well presented as a false lead. You knew it wasn't them. And their real reason for doing things, when revealed, was completely random and out of the blue and then you just never even heard from them again.
Let me say again how bad the dialogue was. On every page. "Now you've immersed me in the midst of an awful qualm!" yeah ok that's exactly how a young woman talks in the 60s, sure.
The murder itself was out of the blue and stupidly unmotivated even at the end when the loose excuse for the "motivation" is revealed, and it's just bizarre enough to take you out of the story entirely. And you kinda always knew who did it because the method makes it really damn obvious. The only reason you're not sure is because the book is so bad that you think, hm, maybe the author will invent some equally bad mechanism to explain how someone else could've improbably done this? But no, it's just dull.
Really boring, awful book. Would not read again or recommend, and will never pick up another Amanda Cross.
July 26, 2008
This is my 2nd Kate Fansler novel and I enjoyed it a lot. Even though I have never read Joyce, this was still enjoyable (or enjoyce-able as it were--har!)As always I learn a lot and keep the internet at hand for all the latin phrases and other literary terms she throws our there! I had no problem reading this despite not being a joyce fan. I may pick up a short story or two in the near future.
Also,in her 2nd Kate Fansler novel, Cross has developed some delightfully witty dialogue between Kate and Reed (her oft paramour). I love clever dialogue!
Kate comes out even more as a feminist. This was written in the late 60s so it is definately of the time.
Also of the time is the disheartening equation of male homosexuality with pedophilia. This happened 2 times by different characters. It is disappointing since Kate is so forward thinking as a woman yet Cross relies on terrible old stereotypes when it comes to gay people. Kate rejects stereotypes of the woman as wife and mother but Cross feels at home suggesting that gay men are perverts. (I think those last two sentences are redundant, but well written, don't you think?) I guess Stonewall was around the corner. I would like to think if this novel had been written later these incidents would not exist.
I look forward to more witty dialogue, more I am woman hear me roar and hopefully less homophobia.
Also,in her 2nd Kate Fansler novel, Cross has developed some delightfully witty dialogue between Kate and Reed (her oft paramour). I love clever dialogue!
Kate comes out even more as a feminist. This was written in the late 60s so it is definately of the time.
Also of the time is the disheartening equation of male homosexuality with pedophilia. This happened 2 times by different characters. It is disappointing since Kate is so forward thinking as a woman yet Cross relies on terrible old stereotypes when it comes to gay people. Kate rejects stereotypes of the woman as wife and mother but Cross feels at home suggesting that gay men are perverts. (I think those last two sentences are redundant, but well written, don't you think?) I guess Stonewall was around the corner. I would like to think if this novel had been written later these incidents would not exist.
I look forward to more witty dialogue, more I am woman hear me roar and hopefully less homophobia.
September 1, 2020
...still better than Ulysses
December 22, 2021
I just reread this book, which for me is a perfect mystery novel. It has minimal suffering and a great deal of good dialogue.
Amanda Cross is the pen name of Carolyn Heilbrun, a literary academic who died some years ago. Her detective, Kate Fansler, is New York upper crust, a brilliant professor of English, and an almost insufferable snob about brains (though Cross apparently thinks she isn't). Not only Kate but her district attorney male lover and a great many other characters speak with unbelievably fluent, highly educated dialogue. I must admit that I love it as a guilty pleasure. I hardly dare to write a review for fear that my English will seem too pedestrian.
All of the Kate Fansler novels have literary themes. This one, based on James Joyce, is one of the best.
The heir to a famous publisher, who was something like Maxwell Perkins (see, I can play the literary history game), asks Kate to sort through his voluminous papers, which include his correpondence with James Joyce, at his house in the Berkshires. Kate hates the country. Her loathing is exceeded by that of Reed Amhearst, her district attorney lover, who forces himself to step out of New York City to visit her.
Kate's brother, who is much wealthier than she, asks her to take care of his eight-year-old son Leo for the summer. If there's anything that makes Kate more uncomfortable than the country, it is children. She hires a graduate student to tutor Leo and be his companion. She also hires another graduate student, Emmet, to go through the Joyce letters. Emmet talks like Oscar Wilde, one of the novel's pleasures, but is heterosexual.
The characters discuss Joyce's works and there are nice touches like a promiscuous neighbor whose last name is Mulligan (the name of a similar character in Ulysses).
There is more than a little misogyny in the depiction of a woman neighbor, but nonetheless I admit I thoroughly enjoyed reading the novel again. One doesn't read these books for a puzzling mystery, but for the atmosphere, perfect for those of us with Ivory Tower nostalgia.
Amanda Cross is the pen name of Carolyn Heilbrun, a literary academic who died some years ago. Her detective, Kate Fansler, is New York upper crust, a brilliant professor of English, and an almost insufferable snob about brains (though Cross apparently thinks she isn't). Not only Kate but her district attorney male lover and a great many other characters speak with unbelievably fluent, highly educated dialogue. I must admit that I love it as a guilty pleasure. I hardly dare to write a review for fear that my English will seem too pedestrian.
All of the Kate Fansler novels have literary themes. This one, based on James Joyce, is one of the best.
The heir to a famous publisher, who was something like Maxwell Perkins (see, I can play the literary history game), asks Kate to sort through his voluminous papers, which include his correpondence with James Joyce, at his house in the Berkshires. Kate hates the country. Her loathing is exceeded by that of Reed Amhearst, her district attorney lover, who forces himself to step out of New York City to visit her.
Kate's brother, who is much wealthier than she, asks her to take care of his eight-year-old son Leo for the summer. If there's anything that makes Kate more uncomfortable than the country, it is children. She hires a graduate student to tutor Leo and be his companion. She also hires another graduate student, Emmet, to go through the Joyce letters. Emmet talks like Oscar Wilde, one of the novel's pleasures, but is heterosexual.
The characters discuss Joyce's works and there are nice touches like a promiscuous neighbor whose last name is Mulligan (the name of a similar character in Ulysses).
There is more than a little misogyny in the depiction of a woman neighbor, but nonetheless I admit I thoroughly enjoyed reading the novel again. One doesn't read these books for a puzzling mystery, but for the atmosphere, perfect for those of us with Ivory Tower nostalgia.
May 4, 2012
The book was a light read, and I would have enjoyed it, had the
mystery been more compelling. The mystery came second to the personal dramas of the main characters; while many of the moments between characters were riddled with subtle clues, many moments seemed completely out of place and seemed only later justified by being tied to the mystery. It was a very top-heavy narrative, plodding through exposition for the first 60-odd pages, then getting mired in discussions of little import to the reader that have no discernible payoff in the novel at hand.
Further more, I was distracted throughout by the speech patterns of the characters. They spoke very adroitly, which is to be expected out of so many professors being in the cast of characters; but they also spoke very much like British gentry. I do not profess to be an expert on speech patterns of the 1960's, but having read other novels written before and during that period, I'm assuming that few, even highly educated New Englanders, spoke as if they were in a garden party thrown by Agatha Christie. It wasn't a horrific flaw, but it was very distracting for me.
mystery been more compelling. The mystery came second to the personal dramas of the main characters; while many of the moments between characters were riddled with subtle clues, many moments seemed completely out of place and seemed only later justified by being tied to the mystery. It was a very top-heavy narrative, plodding through exposition for the first 60-odd pages, then getting mired in discussions of little import to the reader that have no discernible payoff in the novel at hand.
Further more, I was distracted throughout by the speech patterns of the characters. They spoke very adroitly, which is to be expected out of so many professors being in the cast of characters; but they also spoke very much like British gentry. I do not profess to be an expert on speech patterns of the 1960's, but having read other novels written before and during that period, I'm assuming that few, even highly educated New Englanders, spoke as if they were in a garden party thrown by Agatha Christie. It wasn't a horrific flaw, but it was very distracting for me.
January 15, 2020
"What could be more idyllic than a summer in the Berkshires, sorting through James Joyce's letters to his publisher. What could be more peaceful that long walks in the woods with friends old and new.
"Well, just about anything. Kate Fansler finds that literary ability and love of nature are far less vital than supersleuthing skill when her next-door neighbor is murdered -- and all her house guests are prime suspects.
"It all adds up to a delightful mystery in the best whodunit tradition!"
~~back cover
I have a sneaking remembrance that I might have read either this book or other books in the series before. But regardless, what a joy this book was! Absolutely smashing dialogue: witty, sarcastic, and filled with obscure literary references. Well worth reading for the dialogue alone. And of course the plot was excellent as well. I can't wait to read the rest of the series!
"Well, just about anything. Kate Fansler finds that literary ability and love of nature are far less vital than supersleuthing skill when her next-door neighbor is murdered -- and all her house guests are prime suspects.
"It all adds up to a delightful mystery in the best whodunit tradition!"
~~back cover
I have a sneaking remembrance that I might have read either this book or other books in the series before. But regardless, what a joy this book was! Absolutely smashing dialogue: witty, sarcastic, and filled with obscure literary references. Well worth reading for the dialogue alone. And of course the plot was excellent as well. I can't wait to read the rest of the series!
July 21, 2021
Um, Goodreads, when a book is titled The James Joyce Murder, it clearly has nothing at all to do with Henry James. Fun old dated novel that I once loved for its witty academic banter. Now a relic, interesting mostly for being seriously frozen in time. Great for history students of the 60’s. Amazing in retrospect how much anti-feminism a feminist author simply took for granted.
June 11, 2020
This was a good read as my enjoyment came from the academic style, which comes across as "fussy" but which contains so much with a sentence that is sometimes lacking in modern novels. It makes you want to read on as quite possible it will never quite come to the point. It does however in quite an off-hand manner. As the author states the world is losing the breed of single academics. The idea of the don sitting in a winged armchair in a book lined study with a leather-bound tomb and a glass of something is most appealing.
The story finds Kate Fansler with two of her students looking after her nephew Leo while sorting the collection of letters to a publisher from among others James Joyce when a murder is committed. Although the police arrive the matter is solved by Kate and her friend the assistant district attorney.
A Whimsey like story, surrounding the country house party and the general goings on with the locals. Enjoyable and worth 4 stars from me.
The story finds Kate Fansler with two of her students looking after her nephew Leo while sorting the collection of letters to a publisher from among others James Joyce when a murder is committed. Although the police arrive the matter is solved by Kate and her friend the assistant district attorney.
A Whimsey like story, surrounding the country house party and the general goings on with the locals. Enjoyable and worth 4 stars from me.
August 19, 2022
When Kate Fansler goes to the Berkshires to catalog a collection of James Joyce letter, she must contend with, in addition to Joycean problems, difficulties with local help. graduate students, summer people, and a murder. Fortunately NY ADA Reed Amherst arrives to help. This has always been my favorite Kate Fansler mystery--I love the witty dialog, lively characters, & the development of the subtle romance between Kate & Reid.
April 6, 2023
I'm almost tempted to try to read Ulysses by James Joyce as a result of reading this book. But I've read the book several times and managed to avoid such a temptation thus far.
I do like Reed and the slow development of his and Kate's relationship.
I do like Reed and the slow development of his and Kate's relationship.
August 30, 2023
Bella l’ambientazione e i riferimenti a Joyce però è un po’ pallosetto alla lunga
May 15, 2012
ISBN 0345346866 - As a mystery fan, I opened this one happily. I was far happier to close it. Most of the book is written in a very pretentious way - paragraphs such as "She's gone, though not without collecting a bottle of vinegar, expressing inchoate horror at the use of wine vinegar at twice the price of ordinary, asking if she could borrow the house for her garden club's tea, informing me she was busier than anyone else on earth, and wondering, with barely concealed salaciousness, what were the functions of the two young men in this household. I have become very disillusioned about the rural character. I suspect that Wordsworth, when he took to the country, never spoke to anyone but Dorothy and Coleridge, and perhaps an occasional leech gatherer." actually pour from the mouths of Cross' characters. Almost non-stop. It's an affectation, I assume, because there are points in the book when people converse in simpler language.
Kate Fansler went to school with Veronica Lingerwell, daughter of the now-deceased Sam Lingerwell, publisher. Sam's estate is left to Veronica, who is now a nun. The estate includes a large number of Sam's letters and among them are letters from James Joyce, whose work Sam published. The letters are of great interest to many and Kate, as an English professor, is asked to help sort them and decide their fate. She hires a grad student to help, almost accidentally acquires her nephew Leo and hires another grad student to help with him and takes the lot of them off to Lingerwell's country home to get some work done.
Mary Bradford, their neighbor, makes herself generally obnoxious; it's hard to find anyone in the area - local or visitor - who DIDN'T dislike her. When she's shot, it's equally hard to find someone who wouldn't, at some point, liked to have shot her. The members of the household rally around William, Leo's tutor, to help find the real murderer before the police can cart William off to prison.
Since this is one in a series of books, I'll likely read others and I really hope that Cross gets the stick out of her...spine. The characters aren't particularly sympathetic, since almost all of them speak the same way - like pretentious snobs that I would most definitely NOT like to know. If you're a fan, read it for the through-story of Kate. If you're new to Cross, you might want to start elsewhere, because this one is a let-down.
- AnnaLovesBooks
Kate Fansler went to school with Veronica Lingerwell, daughter of the now-deceased Sam Lingerwell, publisher. Sam's estate is left to Veronica, who is now a nun. The estate includes a large number of Sam's letters and among them are letters from James Joyce, whose work Sam published. The letters are of great interest to many and Kate, as an English professor, is asked to help sort them and decide their fate. She hires a grad student to help, almost accidentally acquires her nephew Leo and hires another grad student to help with him and takes the lot of them off to Lingerwell's country home to get some work done.
Mary Bradford, their neighbor, makes herself generally obnoxious; it's hard to find anyone in the area - local or visitor - who DIDN'T dislike her. When she's shot, it's equally hard to find someone who wouldn't, at some point, liked to have shot her. The members of the household rally around William, Leo's tutor, to help find the real murderer before the police can cart William off to prison.
Since this is one in a series of books, I'll likely read others and I really hope that Cross gets the stick out of her...spine. The characters aren't particularly sympathetic, since almost all of them speak the same way - like pretentious snobs that I would most definitely NOT like to know. If you're a fan, read it for the through-story of Kate. If you're new to Cross, you might want to start elsewhere, because this one is a let-down.
- AnnaLovesBooks
December 12, 2019
An early Kate Fansler mystery and, thus far in my estimation (I've only read four), one of the best. It's a solid (cozy) mystery, yes--there's even a brief shout-out to Ngaio Marsh!--but it's so much more than that. It's wickedly funny and wryly observed and, in Amanda Cross's usual way, so smoothly written that by the end you wonder if you have ever in your life been so thoroughly entertained in a mere 200 pages.
As to James Joyce, let me say this: I have enjoyed exactly one of his stories, and the rest of his works have left me only with the desire to punch him, repeatedly, in the kidneys. Joyce suffuses this book in a way that I won't spoil for you, but I still found it utterly charming. If you, in contrast, are a fan of Joyce, you will be so delighted that your heart goes "pop." (Inside joke.)
If you've ever been in academia, or in publishing, there's a lot in here for you to enjoy as well. I won't say more.
As to problems with the book: it was published in 1967. Homosexuality comes up a couple of times and, while the text doesn't get exactly homophobic, I'm not going to give it stars for LGBTQ pride, either. The central characters don't seem particularly judgmental but they also don't seem to Have Gay Friends or anything and I don't know that I can trust them. (And I don't recall any Gay Friends from later Fansler mysteries; further bulletins as events warrant, I guess.) I like these characters, and I want them to not be homophobes, but I can't tell one way or the other yet.
Overall? An entertaining story, with many enjoyable literary allusions, and well-drawn characters. The James Joyce Murder blessedly does not make you read James Joyce but it will make you wonder about what makes a good person; what makes a good job; what makes for a satisfying relationship; and whether anyone could have stopped the terrible things that happen. It IS definitely set in 1967, as I mention above and because everyone has to call or write letters and no one can even send a godforsaken FAX. But overall it's remarkable how contemporary it feels.
(And there's an Agatha Christie joke in there that SLAYED me.)
As to James Joyce, let me say this: I have enjoyed exactly one of his stories, and the rest of his works have left me only with the desire to punch him, repeatedly, in the kidneys. Joyce suffuses this book in a way that I won't spoil for you, but I still found it utterly charming. If you, in contrast, are a fan of Joyce, you will be so delighted that your heart goes "pop." (Inside joke.)
If you've ever been in academia, or in publishing, there's a lot in here for you to enjoy as well. I won't say more.
As to problems with the book: it was published in 1967. Homosexuality comes up a couple of times and, while the text doesn't get exactly homophobic, I'm not going to give it stars for LGBTQ pride, either. The central characters don't seem particularly judgmental but they also don't seem to Have Gay Friends or anything and I don't know that I can trust them. (And I don't recall any Gay Friends from later Fansler mysteries; further bulletins as events warrant, I guess.) I like these characters, and I want them to not be homophobes, but I can't tell one way or the other yet.
Overall? An entertaining story, with many enjoyable literary allusions, and well-drawn characters. The James Joyce Murder blessedly does not make you read James Joyce but it will make you wonder about what makes a good person; what makes a good job; what makes for a satisfying relationship; and whether anyone could have stopped the terrible things that happen. It IS definitely set in 1967, as I mention above and because everyone has to call or write letters and no one can even send a godforsaken FAX. But overall it's remarkable how contemporary it feels.
(And there's an Agatha Christie joke in there that SLAYED me.)
January 7, 2011
I wanted to like this one really badly. How could a vintage mystery addict bibilophilic professional fiction editor not love a 1960s mystery based on the letters between James Joyce and his publisher/editor?
But it was just simply too precious. And the plot itself makes you think Cross had never read a mystery in her life.
"As famous writer #37 said," nobody ever got off a manslaughter conviction for teaching a child to point a gun at the head of a living person they don't like and pull the trigger (chortling in their innocent, childishly charming way, "I got the bitch!") on the assumption that, gosh, we don't even own bullets around our house.
But it was just simply too precious. And the plot itself makes you think Cross had never read a mystery in her life.
"As famous writer #37 said," nobody ever got off a manslaughter conviction for teaching a child to point a gun at the head of a living person they don't like and pull the trigger (chortling in their innocent, childishly charming way, "I got the bitch!") on the assumption that, gosh, we don't even own bullets around our house.
September 6, 2016
How uncomfortable to be quietly vacationing in the Berkshires when your next-door neighbor is found murdered and all of your friends staying with you are the prime suspects? Yep, better figure out who did it before this vacation goes south.
May 28, 2020
Published in 1967, this Professor Kate Fansler mystery features her gathering up a couple of grad students--one to sort through a deceased publisher-friend's letters for literary treasures and one to tutor/look after Kate's young nephew Leo--and taking the house of the deceased publisher-friend in the Berkshires for the summer to put in order the publisher's estate for his daughter, an old schoolmate of Kate. (Who wrote the blurb for the edition I'm reviewing? Obviously never read the title properly, let alone the book!) A terrible neighbor is killed, and Kate's entire household is implicated.
The complete delight of this book is in the many James Joycean ties, from the chapter headings (see Joyce's The Dubliners) to the names of characters from that work and from Ulysses, to the literate discussions of life and death and all things between that echo themes from the works of Joyce, to episodes that form inside jokes as they echo episodes in Joyce's works.
The feminist discussions are fine, but particularly appealing to me was the just-retired professor who protests the assumption of her declining abilities because of her age. At my own age I am becoming ever more aware of the prejudices of the young toward the old.
There is a lot of talk of homosexuality, and I have to protest the reviewers who said that Kate's household appears to believe that this equates with pedophilia: instead, one of the characters notes that it is a typical American attitude that homosexuality equates with pedophilia, and this attitude must be overcome. Kate herself has to overcome her assumptions on this matter, hopefully for good. I think this is a fair reflection of the time in which the book was written, when people really didn't know what to think.
Now I want to reread James Joyce with a fresh eye, after reading a particularly entertaining discussion of his works by Kate and two of her professorial house guests for the enlightenment of the local police.
The complete delight of this book is in the many James Joycean ties, from the chapter headings (see Joyce's The Dubliners) to the names of characters from that work and from Ulysses, to the literate discussions of life and death and all things between that echo themes from the works of Joyce, to episodes that form inside jokes as they echo episodes in Joyce's works.
The feminist discussions are fine, but particularly appealing to me was the just-retired professor who protests the assumption of her declining abilities because of her age. At my own age I am becoming ever more aware of the prejudices of the young toward the old.
There is a lot of talk of homosexuality, and I have to protest the reviewers who said that Kate's household appears to believe that this equates with pedophilia: instead, one of the characters notes that it is a typical American attitude that homosexuality equates with pedophilia, and this attitude must be overcome. Kate herself has to overcome her assumptions on this matter, hopefully for good. I think this is a fair reflection of the time in which the book was written, when people really didn't know what to think.
Now I want to reread James Joyce with a fresh eye, after reading a particularly entertaining discussion of his works by Kate and two of her professorial house guests for the enlightenment of the local police.
February 1, 2022
Professor Kate Fansler takes over a house in the countryside to sort through the correspondence between a deceased publisher and the luminaries he published, including James Joyce. She also reluctantly takes on her nephew, a troubled young boy who, it is hoped, will thrive with the undivided attention of a tutor. She also has an assistant in her literary work, and a visitor in the shape of assistant district attorney Reed Amhearst, along with two invited guests, both female professors at the end and the beginning of their careers respectively. When a local woman who is notorious for her unpleasant personality dies, accidentally shot to death by the tutor using a gun that had never previously held live bullets, Kate feels that she must find out who loaded the gun in order to save her household from ignominy at the very least….This is the second Kate Fansler mystery, published in 1967, and it’s quite a delight, especially in terms of the language. The characters spend pages chatting about obscure stories by James Joyce, the realm of academia and other esoteric matters. At the same time, the difference in attitudes between the 1960s and the 2020s is striking: for example, after Reed has proposed to Kate (and been turned down), and they have an argument about how best to deal with the legal situation, he notes that they should marry because “if it’s not exactly legal to beat your wife, it’s less illegal than to beat a woman to whom you’re not related in any way.” This is presented as banter, but it is also an example of how such treatment of women was condoned in the United States in 1967. Chilling. Such commentary on my part aside, however, this is quite a fun read; recommended, keeping in mind that the world was indeed a different country then.
July 20, 2017
Je crois que j'attendais un peu trop de ce livre. Universitaire + littérature + enquête, ça m'a fait penser à la génialissime série Inspecteur Lewis, et j'espérais que ce livre serait dans le même genre, au moins avec le même type d'ambiance. Erreur, il se passe à la campagne, et aux Etats-Unis et non en Angleterre (même si à part les noms de villes, il n'y a pas grande différence ici). Mais le plus gros problème avec ce livre, c'est sa quatrième de couverture. 10/18, pourquoi donc vous amusez-vous à raconter le dénouement final dans la quatrième de couverture ?? Oui, ça appâte le chaland, ça c'est sûr, ce résumé me vendait du rêve, mais quand on se rend compte que c'est en fait la résolution du mystère... il ne manque plus que le nom du coupable pour complètement spoiler le livre, tout le reste y est. Sérieusement. Je déteste ça. C'est bien pour ça que je lis de moins en mois les résumés et quatrièmes de couverture.
Bon en dehors de ces deux déceptions, j'ai passé un agréable moment de lecture. Les personnages, l'intrigue, l'écriture : c'était vraiment un livre sympathique, qui ne cassait pas trois pattes à un canard et ne révolutionnera pas ma vie, mais sympathique tout de même. Je poursuivrai cette série avec plaisir - sans jeter le moindre coup d’œil à la quatrième de couverture, cela va sans dire !
Bon en dehors de ces deux déceptions, j'ai passé un agréable moment de lecture. Les personnages, l'intrigue, l'écriture : c'était vraiment un livre sympathique, qui ne cassait pas trois pattes à un canard et ne révolutionnera pas ma vie, mais sympathique tout de même. Je poursuivrai cette série avec plaisir - sans jeter le moindre coup d’œil à la quatrième de couverture, cela va sans dire !
April 19, 2024
This was the first book I’ve read from Cross. My grandmother has started reading her and recommended it to me. Also seeing that it was under 200 pages was appealing. I enjoyed the story, from start to end. This was a perfect gateway for me into classic literature. I wasn’t even aware that I was a fan of classic literature until I read this and discovered the words of Simone de Beauvoir, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and others of the life.
I love Cross’s prose, how each character has distinct voices and traits. I love how in such a short book I was taken on fun adventure in a chaotic household. I think I also liked it because I came from a chaotic house. I also liked it because of the eccentric and old-timey voice of Cross. It can be very blunt and straight to the point, but at times she can also circumvent the point and I loved bouncing around her mind.
Overall this booked changed a lot for me! I bought Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” and “The Woman Destroyed.” I also just bought Woolf’s “Ms. Dalloway.” All of which I’m excited to read and determined if classic literature is really for me, or if I’ll just stick to Cross and her take on it.
I loved the mystery, loved the players involved, and really enjoyed how it all came together (in under 200 pages!!) Would recommend for a quick fun summer read.
I love Cross’s prose, how each character has distinct voices and traits. I love how in such a short book I was taken on fun adventure in a chaotic household. I think I also liked it because I came from a chaotic house. I also liked it because of the eccentric and old-timey voice of Cross. It can be very blunt and straight to the point, but at times she can also circumvent the point and I loved bouncing around her mind.
Overall this booked changed a lot for me! I bought Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” and “The Woman Destroyed.” I also just bought Woolf’s “Ms. Dalloway.” All of which I’m excited to read and determined if classic literature is really for me, or if I’ll just stick to Cross and her take on it.
I loved the mystery, loved the players involved, and really enjoyed how it all came together (in under 200 pages!!) Would recommend for a quick fun summer read.
November 27, 2020
Another reread of a series I have neglected for too long! Professor Kate Fansler has assembled an odd collection of people at a house in the rural Berkshires: a local cook and gardener; her young nephew Leo, whose parents are in Europe; a graduate student William, to tutor and ride herd on Leo; and another grad student Emmet who is helping her sort a large collection of letters between a publisher and his authors, notably James Joyce. The publisher's daughter has inherited the house and the collection, which is in great demand from several libraries, and she has asked Kate for help in organizing the letters and deciding on their disposal. Their odd "city folk" household has given rise to much gossip in the rural community. Her good friend Reed Amhearst shows up for a visit, somewhat shocked to find her residing in the country, and two female professor friends come a little later. When an obnoxious neighbor is shot and killed with the supposedly unloaded gun Leo and his tutor are using for "target" practice, Kate and her friends are desperately looking for suspects outside the household among the locals and the "summer people." Several possibles appear, but both motive and evidence are hard to find.
August 27, 2022
I needed a book to take to bed with me because the book I was currently reading was too dense for that. This is an old book I picked up at a free table and decided this was the time to read it. It's a strange book. I would call it a cozy mystery. However, there is a lot of sex in it, but it is all talk and no action. I don't know why the author focused so much on it. I guess, in the end, some of it was pertinent to the murder, but really? So much talk, so little action??? I didn't guess who the guilty party was, but I did know who it wasn't. I was surprised when the guilty party was found to be "crazy" and need psychological counseling. Strange twist. It was a light, easy ready, but I don't feel a burning desire to track down any of the others in this series.
A side note about James Joyce: When I was in college, over 50 years ago, maybe close to 60 years by now, one of my roommates was an English major and was so excited because they were going to read Ulysses, a banned book. She struggled through it, found it dull, uninteresting, and basically unimportant. From her descriptions while reading it, I have never had a desire to read it, or any of Joyce's other works, for that matter.
A side note about James Joyce: When I was in college, over 50 years ago, maybe close to 60 years by now, one of my roommates was an English major and was so excited because they were going to read Ulysses, a banned book. She struggled through it, found it dull, uninteresting, and basically unimportant. From her descriptions while reading it, I have never had a desire to read it, or any of Joyce's other works, for that matter.
May 14, 2023
Reread - I think I first read this one between 2005 and 2010, when I was longing for a lost career at university, while working in publishing. I remember that I loved all Kate Fansler books, and read them all. This is the only one I have left, and on a whim, I decided to re-read it.
I was disappointed. That's because first, it's VERY much of an era, and I don't find the sexual mores of the 60s THAT interesting, and a large part of the book deals with that. And second, Carolyn Heilbrun aka Amanda Cross apparently loved DL Sayers' Lord Peter Whimsey novels. Which is not bad, I do love them too! but not only does she manage to drop four direct quotations into her own novel, I also have the feeling that she wanted to write some kind of pastiche (or, what we call fanfiction today). (Again, all the power to her. But then, I didn't come to read Peter & Harriet 2.0 here.) The dialogue is snappy, the characters are cardboard, and the murder mystery is kinda laughable.
And I REALLY want to re-read Gaudy Night now.
I was disappointed. That's because first, it's VERY much of an era, and I don't find the sexual mores of the 60s THAT interesting, and a large part of the book deals with that. And second, Carolyn Heilbrun aka Amanda Cross apparently loved DL Sayers' Lord Peter Whimsey novels. Which is not bad, I do love them too! but not only does she manage to drop four direct quotations into her own novel, I also have the feeling that she wanted to write some kind of pastiche (or, what we call fanfiction today). (Again, all the power to her. But then, I didn't come to read Peter & Harriet 2.0 here.) The dialogue is snappy, the characters are cardboard, and the murder mystery is kinda laughable.
And I REALLY want to re-read Gaudy Night now.
January 31, 2023
A difficult work to assess. In its favor, the characters' conversations about Joyce (and the chapter headings taken from the titles of the short stories in Dubliners) made me want to rearead his work.
Against that are two major changes in American sensibility since 1967. The first jarring note was the realization was that a young boy with the encouragement of one grownup and the consent of the rest of the adult household was playing with a real, albeit bullet-less gun and even pulling the trigger while aiming at the head of an annoying neighbor. The other was what today would be considered blatant homophobia from characters whose self-consciously modern, non-judgmental approach to sexuality apparently did not extend to same-sex attraction.
Against that are two major changes in American sensibility since 1967. The first jarring note was the realization was that a young boy with the encouragement of one grownup and the consent of the rest of the adult household was playing with a real, albeit bullet-less gun and even pulling the trigger while aiming at the head of an annoying neighbor. The other was what today would be considered blatant homophobia from characters whose self-consciously modern, non-judgmental approach to sexuality apparently did not extend to same-sex attraction.
April 26, 2019
I was quite underwhelmed with the first in the series, but because I had the second right in front of me, and because I have a strong admiration for Joyce, I decided to give this a go. The JJ angle kept me interested and a few chapters in I realized that Cross had taken the chapter headings from The Dublinbers and used them all rather effectively for her own chapter titles. I ended up enjoying this a lot, but still had a tough time with the insufferable protagonist. If you like JJ and ever wondered how a newly awakening feminist writer in the mid 60s would concoct an English professor/sleuth mystery story, this might be worth a look.
August 25, 2023
This is the second entry on the series that I have read. I am willing to give more a chance. I liked the nascent 2nd wave feminism and the whole NYC academic Bohemian vibe. Even more, I liked the ways that the book conformed with the mystery genre and also subverted it. Finally, the back story of the author (who was a mentor to future women Mystery writers Paretsky and Grafton) is irresistable.
The elitism, classism, and homophobia was annoying. Then I was torn about the prose: I found some of the passages beautiful and intriguing; sometimes it felt overwrought and just showy.
All of which to say, I liked it enough to want to explore more.
The elitism, classism, and homophobia was annoying. Then I was torn about the prose: I found some of the passages beautiful and intriguing; sometimes it felt overwrought and just showy.
All of which to say, I liked it enough to want to explore more.
November 6, 2018
This book was written in 1967 and, hoo boy, it has not aged well. The central mystery was ok (although nothing special) but the surrounding conversational banter was dated in a very distracting way. (For example, there are several instances of various characters assuming all gay men are pedophiles. No one every contradicts this idea. Also several "jokey" references to wife-beating.) One of the weakest of the Kate Fansler mysteries in my opinion.
April 19, 2020
I plowed through this novel much more quickly than the first. I am enjoying Kate Fansler and her tribe. Yes there is occasional dialogue that is anachronistic to our modern sensibilities, but it was written over 50 years ago. Other times, Kate and her views are incredibly wise and refreshing. The literary allusions are great fun, and I am just grateful I have my friend Google to help me out when I don’t recognize them.
August 29, 2020
Maybe 4.5, maybe less, maybe more. I was put off by the forensics. The managing of the rifle just did not ring true.
Setting that aside, the discussions were marvelous, making me actually want to reread Joyce (!), and I am grateful a friend lent me this book, since the book store did not have it and I'd had to skip it while working through the series.
Altogether satisfying, funny, sharp, smart, and even sweet. A good story.
Setting that aside, the discussions were marvelous, making me actually want to reread Joyce (!), and I am grateful a friend lent me this book, since the book store did not have it and I'd had to skip it while working through the series.
Altogether satisfying, funny, sharp, smart, and even sweet. A good story.
September 25, 2020
Half-way through, I was completely in love with this author. I loved the language, and the way she used the language. I love these characters and the absolutely unapologetic independent women.
But at its most base, this is a murder mystery and the author chose to be clever when it came to telling us who and how. And for that, I reduced it's rating and ended up feeling short-changed, manipulated and dismissed.
But at its most base, this is a murder mystery and the author chose to be clever when it came to telling us who and how. And for that, I reduced it's rating and ended up feeling short-changed, manipulated and dismissed.
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