Carolyn G. Heilbrun (1926–2003)

One of the lingering mysteries of Kate Fansler’s life is how she came to be so utterly unlike her older brothers. When her oldest brother Laurence is visited by a man claiming to be Kate’s natural father, it is with some surprise that Kate agrees to DNA testing, which in fact proves the man’s claim. But why has he come back into Kate’s life when she is in her mid-50s and he is in his 70s? And what does he want from the Fansler family?.... This is the last of the Kate Fansler mystery show more series and, unlike the previous book, Kate is all over this one. As is Shakespeare, as each chapter has an epigram (most, I think, if not all from The Tempest). The relationship between fathers and daughters is the overarching theme, and unlike other books in the series there are no murders to investigate here; the very idea of the self-aware and hyper-conscious Kate working to deepen her understanding of herself will either please or infuriate readers, depending on their relationship to the character. For myself, I’m glad I read it, and equally glad to finally be done with the exasperating Kate. Mildly recommended. show less

Professor Kate Fansler spends her days teaching English literature to graduate students and researching 19th Century authors, but that does not mean she isn’t sociable and au courant with contemporary life. When one of her students asks her for a referral to a psychoanalyst, she sends the young woman to her friend and ex-lover Emmanuel Bauer, but when seven weeks later the woman is found dead on Dr. Bauer’s therapy couch, Kate knows she must investigate, for the police are surely ready show more to assume that the most obvious suspect is the killer…. The Kate Fansler books were written between the 1960s and early 2000s, by an author who herself was a university professor and feminist scholar (real name Carolyn Heilbrun), but I had never come across them until a friend recently recommended this series to me. I liked the intellectual content of this book, the first in the series, in that the author assumes a certain level of education in her readers, but at the same time this is by no means a dry academic tome, instead it sparkles with wit and humour. I don’t know if the secondary characters here (Dr. Bauer and his wife, and Reed Amhearst, Assistant District Attorney) will be present in future books, but I hope so as I like them all and they work well together in the sleuthing business; recommended! show less

Kate Fansler is at a bit of a loose end having just published her more recent academic work, so when a publisher invites her to lunch in order to pitch a new investigative job to her, she is intrigued. Particularly so once she learns that the publisher wants her to delve into the life of the wife of a Great Author of the modernist period, a man who achieved high acclaim by centering a novel on the interior life of a woman, who most people suppose was modeled on the wife. As she begins to show more contemplate the work, Kate is eager to meet and talk with three women whose lives were all intertwined with the Foxx family, but they all have secrets of their own to keep…. I’ve been reading the Kate Fansler mysteries a bit at a time, sometimes feeling exasperated with the character and sometimes cheering her on. This, the 10th (of, I think, 14 in total) in the series is actually far and away my favourite so far, largely because Kate meets her match in the three women she encounters and so her tendency toward archness is sharply curbed. I also liked the second part of the novel, which is in the form of a memoir of one of the three women and which is completely different from the usual tone in these books. I don’t know that it’s necessary to have read the earlier books in the series, but certainly a basic knowledge of the myth of Ariadne and Theseus is helpful; very highly recommended! show less

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 show more 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. show less