Kate Fansler is the main character in a series of fourteen mystery novels written by Carolyn Gold Heilbrun from 1964 to 2002, under the pseudonym Amanda Cross.

Kate Fansler
First appearanceIn the Last Analysis
Last appearanceThe Edge of Doom
Created byAmanda Cross
In-universe information
GenderFemale
OccupationUniversity professor
NationalityAmerican

Overview

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Like Heilbrun, Fansler was a literature professor at a prestigious New York university. In the books, she is called upon to solve mysteries set in an academic context, usually involving the murder of a professor or student. Her work is accomplished through conversation with the people involved, rather than through the physically adventurous antics preferred by other fictional detectives. Midway through the series, she married her partner, district attorney Reed Amhearst, but as she tells another character in A Trap For Fools, she "neither uses his name nor wears his ring". Echoing Heilbrun's personal views, she has little sentimental attachment to children, enjoys smoking, drinking, and fatty food, and in later books such as Sweet Death, Kind Death, meditates on the nature of middle age and on the liberating nature of death.

Books in the series

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1 In the Last Analysis 1964
2 The James Joyce Murder 1967
3 Poetic Justice 1970
4 The Theban Mysteries 1971
5 Question of Max 1976
6 Death in a Tenured Position 1981
7 Sweet Death, Kind Death 1984
8 No Word from Winifred Jun-1986
9 A Trap for Fools Apr-1989
10 The Players Come Again Oct-1990
11 An Imperfect Spy Jan-1995
12 The Puzzled Heart Jan-1998
13 Honest Doubt Nov-2000
14 The Edge of Doom Oct-2002

Bibliography

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