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Kate Fansler Mystery #11.5
The Collected Stories of Amanda Cross
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.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
About the author
Amanda Cross
57 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 - 17 of 17 reviews
December 22, 2009
I read these mainly because I had come to the end of all my Cross books (except for the very odd penultimate one), and was sad to have done so. In that context each story was a delight, a little like eating a very small box of very fine chocolates. I don't know what someone might make of these stories if they (the person not the stories) were not very familiar with Kate and her author. As Cross/Heilbrun says herself in her own introduction to the book, I don't typically read detective short stories unless 'an author's longer works have captured my attention, when I find I like a certain author's style of writing, and, most compellingly, when my interest in her or his detective urges me to search out more adventures in that fictional life.' The writing is clear yet elegant; there are very few actual murders. Most of the stories are charming little puzzles. I don't know how easy they are to figure out while reading as I am terrible at that sort of thing and dislike doing it. I hear the same bass note of sorrow in these that I do when reading the novels -- not from the stories themselves, but the knowledge of how Heilbrun ended her own life. That note sounds more clearly in the stories than those novels because they are even briefer, and even more enchanting, the way the cheerful light of a candle flame makes the darkness around it even deeper.
May 21, 2020
I took away two thoughts from this collection of short stories, all but one featuring the Kate Fansler of her crime novels. The first is that I don't understand women. In the story 'Once Upon a Time', a very small girl had tottered happily out from some bushes onto a lawn at an isolated house; older children brought her inside, but no one connected to the girl was ever found. She was adopted by a childless couple. Subsequently as a young adult she, Caroline, tells her story to Kate Fansler concluding with
"Should your curiosity ever lead you to any answers, will you promise to tell me? (...) If I gie up this wonderful question, you have in turn, to promise to tell me if there ever is an answer. Agreed?"
Kate agreed, and with relief.
In the end, Kate hears from the creator of the event how she had arranged to take the child off the hands of a young woman who couldn't care for it, with the intent of passing the girl to the childless couple. The woman, having come to a decision to tell the story without being cajoled, and without having asked for confidentiality, tells everything and ends by saying
"Don't tell Caroline. Don't tell anyone."
"No," Kate said. "But I shall be breaking a promise to Caroline. I promised to tell her if there was ever an answer. Perhaps one day you will let me keep that promise, or you will keep it for me."
That seems to me utterly dishonourable. A) Kate had made a promise to Caroline, and had made no promise to the older woman before the story was told. B) The older woman told the story entirely of her free will, and only asked for a promise of confidentiality afterwards. C) The person with the most interest in the story is clearly Caroline, and she is being shut out.
I can't imagine writing a story in which my protagonist would behave so dishonourably at the end. But, worse, when I relayed my concerns to my wife (who enjoys the Kate Fansler novels), she sided with Kate Fansler's promise-breaking.
So I realise that I don't understand women.
My second take-away thought is that Amanda Cross doesn't understand men. This comes from the story "Who Shot Mrs. Byron Boyd?" In this story two mystery writers, one a very feminist older female and the other an over-the-top male misogynist who talks endlessly of the value of young women as sex objects, with comments like "dames over thirty-five were like Australia: everyone knew it was down there and nobody gave a damn."
My first thought, which I seriously suspected would play into the denouement, was that the macho misogynist was a completely closeted gay. That's how I see men who constantly express themselves like that.
And then I looked at Amanda Cross' bio on the back flap of the book, and in real life she is Dr. Carolyn Heilbrun, whose nonfiction books include "Writing a Woman's Life", "Hamlet's Mother and Other Women" and "The Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem". So there we are. A very feminist older female.
There are also implausible elements to the stories. For example in the first one, no one calls the police or other authorities about this unknown child--they just call the prospective adopting parents who drive over right away, and after that "it was courts and judges and social workers and the long, slow process of the law." In the second story, there is no discussion of whether anyone actually saw the gunman in the lecture hall when he fired the shot, what he looked like, whether it was a man or a woman, nothing. It occurs to me that Dr. Heilbrun may be aphantasic, able to create stories as logical structures but not actually seeing her stories unroll as movies on a screen inside her head. They are not credible.
My overall conclusion: read Amanda Cross if you are a woman, don't bother if you are a man. Unless, perhaps, you're trying to understand female psychology.
"Should your curiosity ever lead you to any answers, will you promise to tell me? (...) If I gie up this wonderful question, you have in turn, to promise to tell me if there ever is an answer. Agreed?"
Kate agreed, and with relief.
In the end, Kate hears from the creator of the event how she had arranged to take the child off the hands of a young woman who couldn't care for it, with the intent of passing the girl to the childless couple. The woman, having come to a decision to tell the story without being cajoled, and without having asked for confidentiality, tells everything and ends by saying
"Don't tell Caroline. Don't tell anyone."
"No," Kate said. "But I shall be breaking a promise to Caroline. I promised to tell her if there was ever an answer. Perhaps one day you will let me keep that promise, or you will keep it for me."
That seems to me utterly dishonourable. A) Kate had made a promise to Caroline, and had made no promise to the older woman before the story was told. B) The older woman told the story entirely of her free will, and only asked for a promise of confidentiality afterwards. C) The person with the most interest in the story is clearly Caroline, and she is being shut out.
I can't imagine writing a story in which my protagonist would behave so dishonourably at the end. But, worse, when I relayed my concerns to my wife (who enjoys the Kate Fansler novels), she sided with Kate Fansler's promise-breaking.
So I realise that I don't understand women.
My second take-away thought is that Amanda Cross doesn't understand men. This comes from the story "Who Shot Mrs. Byron Boyd?" In this story two mystery writers, one a very feminist older female and the other an over-the-top male misogynist who talks endlessly of the value of young women as sex objects, with comments like "dames over thirty-five were like Australia: everyone knew it was down there and nobody gave a damn."
My first thought, which I seriously suspected would play into the denouement, was that the macho misogynist was a completely closeted gay. That's how I see men who constantly express themselves like that.
And then I looked at Amanda Cross' bio on the back flap of the book, and in real life she is Dr. Carolyn Heilbrun, whose nonfiction books include "Writing a Woman's Life", "Hamlet's Mother and Other Women" and "The Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem". So there we are. A very feminist older female.
There are also implausible elements to the stories. For example in the first one, no one calls the police or other authorities about this unknown child--they just call the prospective adopting parents who drive over right away, and after that "it was courts and judges and social workers and the long, slow process of the law." In the second story, there is no discussion of whether anyone actually saw the gunman in the lecture hall when he fired the shot, what he looked like, whether it was a man or a woman, nothing. It occurs to me that Dr. Heilbrun may be aphantasic, able to create stories as logical structures but not actually seeing her stories unroll as movies on a screen inside her head. They are not credible.
My overall conclusion: read Amanda Cross if you are a woman, don't bother if you are a man. Unless, perhaps, you're trying to understand female psychology.
November 15, 2020
Pleasant time-passer, a collection of short stories all but one featuring Cross's series amateur detective, Kate Fansler. The stories are clever enough, and often witty. You may get a bit much of a faculty members view academic life in the '80-'90s and Cross and Fansler are feminists and don't let you forget it -- some of the stories turn on male perception of women, which is often where the wittiness comes in.
I'm not sure whether I'd like archness of her style at novel length, but since I have one of her novels I'll eventually find out.
I'm not sure whether I'd like archness of her style at novel length, but since I have one of her novels I'll eventually find out.
December 23, 2020
After re-reading her 12 Kate Fansler novels, I had to buy this. A collection of Kate short stories mostly published in magazines like Ellery Queen's, plus one which is not a Kate story. I enjoyed that one the least; not sure if it was the story itself, or just because Kate wasn't in it! The book is a quick read and a nice dessert to the series.
January 14, 2021
I have now read all of this author's fiction. I found the short stories less satisfying than her longer fiction; some of the solutions seemed too obvious, with no red herrings (but you might not have as many of those in short stories.)
[written in 2001; there is one more AC book I haven't read, published since then.]
[written in 2001; there is one more AC book I haven't read, published since then.]
April 9, 2020
I read this before. I'll probably read it again if I live so long. I love Amanda Cross and her life, husband, profession, good humor, and wit. She solves mysteries in due time. Nothing is rushed. She is a dry as her martini. Classic feminist.
February 22, 2017
Not recommended for "This will put you to sleep" reading. The stories are intriguing and demand attention.
February 23, 2017
Short and clever in an academic setting, mysteries but hardly any dead bodies.
September 29, 2008
Can one read too many Amanda Cross mysteries? I would have said no before I read this collection. Reading these stories in a row is much less satisfying than one full book at a time.
Cross writes witty, elegant and very literary mysteries. There may be bodies but rarely blood. Our English prof/investigator, Kate Fansler, always teaches me something new and interesting in the course of her tales. And I've long thought that her husband is the only other man I might consider marrying (after my own husband, of course).
I'd say skip the collected stories and go right to one of the books. But don't skip Kate Fansler or Amanda Cross.
Cross writes witty, elegant and very literary mysteries. There may be bodies but rarely blood. Our English prof/investigator, Kate Fansler, always teaches me something new and interesting in the course of her tales. And I've long thought that her husband is the only other man I might consider marrying (after my own husband, of course).
I'd say skip the collected stories and go right to one of the books. But don't skip Kate Fansler or Amanda Cross.
October 31, 2012
I seldom read short stories because I like really getting to know the characters in a book. I found, however, that I was only reading a page or two of a novel before going to bed - so I decided to read Amanda Cross's Collected Stories thinking that one story a night would be a good going-to-bed read. I was right! These are not "murder mysteries", but thinking mysteries; puzzle solving stories.
Now - back to a much longer book!
Now - back to a much longer book!
November 17, 2015
I have missed Kate Fansler, so when I saw an Amanda Cross book that I had not read on the shelf, I grabbed it. I don't think I have ever seen these at the used bookstore before ... This is, as it says, a collection of short stories. Kate Fansler is involved in all except one. It was a perfect book for the train ride and filled with old friends.
Read
May 20, 2015Meh. There Are a few pleasing passages here and there but overall I was underwhelmed. These stories are all solved with information that the detective learns offstage which is cheating to my mind and makes the solution unsatisfying.
December 3, 2023
Tania's nowhere --2
Once upon a time --3
Arrie and Jasper --2
The disappearance of Great Aunt Flavia --3
Murder without a text --3
Who shot Mrs. Byron Boyd? --2
The proposition --2
The George Eliot play --3
The baroness--3
Once upon a time --3
Arrie and Jasper --2
The disappearance of Great Aunt Flavia --3
Murder without a text --3
Who shot Mrs. Byron Boyd? --2
The proposition --2
The George Eliot play --3
The baroness--3
May 21, 2009
didn't know she wrote stories. very nice to read her elegant, over-long sentences again, perfect for waiting for my car's oil to be changed.
December 29, 2015
I picked up this book at a give-away table in a library. The stories were delightful. Each was a nice easy read - just the right amount. I might have to check out other books by Cross.
October 26, 2015
An enjoyable, fun read!
October 6, 2011
I love Kate Fansler stories and have done so for 30 years.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews