- Hardcover: 228 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books (P); First edition edition (Feb 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0345389174
- ISBN-13: 978-0345389176
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.5 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Product Description
Product Description
"FASCINATING . . . The dialogue is, as always, elegant and polished."
--Los Angeles Times
While guest-teaching a semester at Schuyler Law School, Kate Fansler gets to know an extraordinary secretary named Harriet, who patterns her life after John le Carré's character George Smiley. Harriet reveals that Schuyler has some serious skeletons swinging in its perfectly appointed closets, including the fate of Schuyler's only tenured female professor and a faculty wife who has killed her husband. As if Kate doesn't have enough to tackle, she is also up against the men who comprise the faculty of Schuyler itself--a thoroughly unapologetic bastion of white male power, mediocrity, and misogyny. Although she has only a few months on campus, Kate refuses to let Schuyler's rigid ideals and insistence on secrecy suppress her indefatigable curiosity--or her obsession with the truth. . . .
"Cross manages to keep this book as lighthearted and witty as any of the Kate Fansler mysteries, while depicting an institution as lethal as any cold war."
--Marilyn French
"A funny, snappish polemic on political correctitude that takes great relish in Kate's sardonic views."
--The New York Times Book Review
From the Paperback edition.
--Los Angeles Times
While guest-teaching a semester at Schuyler Law School, Kate Fansler gets to know an extraordinary secretary named Harriet, who patterns her life after John le Carré's character George Smiley. Harriet reveals that Schuyler has some serious skeletons swinging in its perfectly appointed closets, including the fate of Schuyler's only tenured female professor and a faculty wife who has killed her husband. As if Kate doesn't have enough to tackle, she is also up against the men who comprise the faculty of Schuyler itself--a thoroughly unapologetic bastion of white male power, mediocrity, and misogyny. Although she has only a few months on campus, Kate refuses to let Schuyler's rigid ideals and insistence on secrecy suppress her indefatigable curiosity--or her obsession with the truth. . . .
"Cross manages to keep this book as lighthearted and witty as any of the Kate Fansler mysteries, while depicting an institution as lethal as any cold war."
--Marilyn French
"A funny, snappish polemic on political correctitude that takes great relish in Kate's sardonic views."
--The New York Times Book Review
From the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When Kate Fansler decides to teach a semester at Schuyler Law School, she meets an extraordinary woman who patterns her life after John le Carré's character, George Smiley. Harriet reveals to Kate that Schuyler has some serious skeletons swinging in its perfectly appointed closets, and also some disturbing information about the only tenured female professor. Kate finds herself up against the faculty itself--a thoroughly unapologetic bastion of white male power, mediocrity and misogyny.
Although she has only a few months on campus, Kate refuses to let Schuyler's rigid ideals and insistence on secrecy suppress her indefatigable curiosity-- or her obsession with the truth.
Although she has only a few months on campus, Kate refuses to let Schuyler's rigid ideals and insistence on secrecy suppress her indefatigable curiosity-- or her obsession with the truth.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Crossing the Line
11 Nov 2004
Format:Hardcover
Kate Fansler had passed the statistical point of midlife. Nostalgia may be a disabling pressure that signifies retreat. Kate addresses the parents at her old school, the Theban. At the event she is challenged by a secretary from Schuyler Law School that she has never really done anything for the dispossessed, marginal individual.
Reed is to start a clinic at Schuyler Law School. The woman from the secretarial room at Schyler appears in the apartment building of Kate and Reed. She claims her presence proves her point that middle-aged women are invisible. The woman claims that reading John LeCarre has convinced her to become a spy.
The woman has disappeared, shedding her identity. Prior to that she was a professor. The woman calls herself Harriet. Harriet has pursued the couple for reason of Kate's crime-solving reputation. She wants them to investigate the death of a woman professor at Schuyler Law School.
Kate meets the faculty member who is to co-teach her literature and law seminar. Kate is seeking a pleasant change from MIDDLEMARCH. Trying to understand the men she meets at Schuyler, Harriet tells Kate that she has never met a group of bonded males swollen with mediocrity and power. Talking to her male colleague she comes to understand that he has crossed the line, he knows why a women's movement exists. Contemplating the death of the female faculty member causes Kate to go into her investigative mode. Kate goes to see the brother of the dead woman, Nellie Rosenbach.
In the end the mystery surrounding the Harriet character is disclosed. This book includes the battered woman syndrome and a host of feminist issues. This may be Carolyn Heilbrun's best Amanda Cross offering.
Reed is to start a clinic at Schuyler Law School. The woman from the secretarial room at Schyler appears in the apartment building of Kate and Reed. She claims her presence proves her point that middle-aged women are invisible. The woman claims that reading John LeCarre has convinced her to become a spy.
The woman has disappeared, shedding her identity. Prior to that she was a professor. The woman calls herself Harriet. Harriet has pursued the couple for reason of Kate's crime-solving reputation. She wants them to investigate the death of a woman professor at Schuyler Law School.
Kate meets the faculty member who is to co-teach her literature and law seminar. Kate is seeking a pleasant change from MIDDLEMARCH. Trying to understand the men she meets at Schuyler, Harriet tells Kate that she has never met a group of bonded males swollen with mediocrity and power. Talking to her male colleague she comes to understand that he has crossed the line, he knows why a women's movement exists. Contemplating the death of the female faculty member causes Kate to go into her investigative mode. Kate goes to see the brother of the dead woman, Nellie Rosenbach.
In the end the mystery surrounding the Harriet character is disclosed. This book includes the battered woman syndrome and a host of feminist issues. This may be Carolyn Heilbrun's best Amanda Cross offering.
9 of 13 people found the following review helpful
A little bit of mystery; a lot of whining.
25 Jan 1999
Format:Mass Market Paperback
What happened to the person who wrote "The James Joyce Murder?"
I can forgive Ms. Fansler for the more obscure literary references, which tend to bore the non- literature scholars, but 212 pages of whining about the plight of women! Only the choir would listen to that sermon.
A wonderful book
22 Feb 2012
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm sorry that some readers so disliked this book, and published really savage reviews. I loved it, and one of the reasons, to be honest, is that I also love John Le Carre, and was very moved by the quotations as well as the whole spy theme. I have also seen, and experienced, sexism in institutions. Perhaps some of the readers are just too young.
Which really brings up the issue of what is fair criticism. Sometimes I read books but realize that the insights and underpinnings of the story are very far from my understanding of reality. But I would never publish a review of a book I can't like for those reasons. I don't think it's fair, and I wouldn't want to discourage people from reading who could enjoy that kind of world view.
If you are widely read, if you love Hardy and the story of Demeter, I think you'll love this book.
Which really brings up the issue of what is fair criticism. Sometimes I read books but realize that the insights and underpinnings of the story are very far from my understanding of reality. But I would never publish a review of a book I can't like for those reasons. I don't think it's fair, and I wouldn't want to discourage people from reading who could enjoy that kind of world view.
If you are widely read, if you love Hardy and the story of Demeter, I think you'll love this book.
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