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Kate Fansler Mystery #1
Die letzte Analyse
When beautiful Janet Harrison asks English professor Kate Fansler to recommend a Manhattan psychoanalyst, Kate immediately sends the girl to her dear friend and former lover, Dr. Emanuel Bauer. Seven weeks later, the girl is stabbed to death on Emanuel's couch--with incriminating fingerprints on the murder weapon. To Kate, the idea of her brilliant friend killing anyone is preposterous, but proving it seems an impossible task. For Janet had no friends, no lover, no family. Why, then, should someone feel compelled to kill her? Kate's analytic techniques leave no stone unturned--not even the one under which a venomous killer once again lies coiled and ready to strike. . . .
210 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1964
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About the author
Amanda Cross
47 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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January 7, 2025DNF
I love a good mystery series with an interesting female protagonist. I’d seen some wonderful reviews for this series but sadly, this isn’t my next new mystery series to binge.
Why? Let’s just make a list, shall we? 😎
#1- Didn’t like the professor who is our lady detective. That’s never a good sign.
#2- Oddly this wasn’t about the fact the book is almost 50 years old ( ‘cuz I loved the early PD James novels). Rather, it was the pretentious, elitism jumping off the page when dealing with our protagonist and colleagues that had my eyes rolling.
#3 - In the end, I just didn’t care enough about the murdered co-ed or the psychoanalyst who may or may not be framed for said murdered co-ed.
And I didn’t even read the end to learn who the murderer was…and that says it all!
Le sigh.
(Reviewed 8/23/23)
I love a good mystery series with an interesting female protagonist. I’d seen some wonderful reviews for this series but sadly, this isn’t my next new mystery series to binge.
Why? Let’s just make a list, shall we? 😎
#1- Didn’t like the professor who is our lady detective. That’s never a good sign.
#2- Oddly this wasn’t about the fact the book is almost 50 years old ( ‘cuz I loved the early PD James novels). Rather, it was the pretentious, elitism jumping off the page when dealing with our protagonist and colleagues that had my eyes rolling.
#3 - In the end, I just didn’t care enough about the murdered co-ed or the psychoanalyst who may or may not be framed for said murdered co-ed.
And I didn’t even read the end to learn who the murderer was…and that says it all!
Le sigh.
(Reviewed 8/23/23)
April 10, 2018
This academic mystery series is one that I have meant to read for ages, so when it finally appeared on kindle, I felt that I must get around to trying it. “In the Last Analysis,” is the first mystery featuring English professor Kate Fansler. This is set in New York and was published in 1964.
When Kate is asked by a student, Janet Harrison, whether she could recommend a psychoanalyst, she suggested her close friend, and former lover, Emmanuel Bauer. However, when Janet is found murdered on the analyst’s couch, Emmanuel is the main suspect and, feeling responsible, Kate feels it is up to her to clear his name.
This is a very literary mystery. Tied down to classes, Kate enlists her niece’s fiancé, Jerry, to do some of the legwork for her. She also has a useful source of information in the Justice Department, in the urbane, intelligent Reed. I enjoyed Kate’s intelligent unravelling of this case. It was not particularly realistic; this is very much a puzzle – tackled by Kate as a problem to be solved. I will certainly read on and look forward to continuing the series.
When Kate is asked by a student, Janet Harrison, whether she could recommend a psychoanalyst, she suggested her close friend, and former lover, Emmanuel Bauer. However, when Janet is found murdered on the analyst’s couch, Emmanuel is the main suspect and, feeling responsible, Kate feels it is up to her to clear his name.
This is a very literary mystery. Tied down to classes, Kate enlists her niece’s fiancé, Jerry, to do some of the legwork for her. She also has a useful source of information in the Justice Department, in the urbane, intelligent Reed. I enjoyed Kate’s intelligent unravelling of this case. It was not particularly realistic; this is very much a puzzle – tackled by Kate as a problem to be solved. I will certainly read on and look forward to continuing the series.
June 19, 2011
I didn't like this at all. Maybe it's just a bit dated, but she was so annoyingly elitist. I wanted to stab her on the couch.
November 19, 2019
This is just the kind of book I relish - collegiate setting, lively badinage, intelligent analysis and independent thinking. Yes, by a woman.
In this case, "analysis" of the title refers to psychoanalysis. English professor recommends a psychiatrist to a student, the student is killed on the couch and much lies hidden requiring diligent hunting for the truth.
Kate (the English professor) recruits her niece's fiancé to assist in the investigation and I was hoping Jerry would be a regular part of her routine going forward, but it appears at the end he decides to go back to normal life. I suppose I will learn more as I make progress in this series as soon as.
1964 copyright lists her real name Carolyn G Heilbrun the author tried to keep secret to protect her job at Columbia where she taught English, a Wellesley grad who did achieve tenure, the first woman to do so at Columbia...this the first of 14 Kate Fansler mysteries.
Library Loan, Fawcett Books paperback, 217 pp
In this case, "analysis" of the title refers to psychoanalysis. English professor recommends a psychiatrist to a student, the student is killed on the couch and much lies hidden requiring diligent hunting for the truth.
Kate (the English professor) recruits her niece's fiancé to assist in the investigation and I was hoping Jerry would be a regular part of her routine going forward, but it appears at the end he decides to go back to normal life. I suppose I will learn more as I make progress in this series as soon as.
1964 copyright lists her real name Carolyn G Heilbrun the author tried to keep secret to protect her job at Columbia where she taught English, a Wellesley grad who did achieve tenure, the first woman to do so at Columbia...this the first of 14 Kate Fansler mysteries.
Library Loan, Fawcett Books paperback, 217 pp
July 31, 2013
Liked it well enough.
I think I would have been better off reading this series in its first go-around -- I might have enjoyed Kate's verbosity a little more as a grad student than I do today. I don't think that Amanda Cross had perfected her dialogue or her sense of timing back then because I found her dialogue improbable and stilted. Maybe her other books wear a little better, although I may -- or may not -- dip into another Kate Fansler mystery to find out. Still and all ... not bad.
I think I would have been better off reading this series in its first go-around -- I might have enjoyed Kate's verbosity a little more as a grad student than I do today. I don't think that Amanda Cross had perfected her dialogue or her sense of timing back then because I found her dialogue improbable and stilted. Maybe her other books wear a little better, although I may -- or may not -- dip into another Kate Fansler mystery to find out. Still and all ... not bad.
February 23, 2021
The story had a lighter touch than Agatha Christie, but it was as enjoyable; a satisfying read, and the interactive conversations occurring throughout the book, between the main character, Kate Fansler, and with her other characters was amusing and made me smile. The final solution was a believable twist.
June 26, 2015
WARNING--SPOILER I thought perhaps I had been too hard on Amanda Cross (Carolyn Heilbrun) when I read several of her books many years ago. On rereading this for a book club, I realized that she was still not a very good writer. Kate Fansler, a literature professor in NYC and her obvious alter ego, sounds like literature professors think they ought to sound (and since I'm one I can say that) and always have pertinent quotes to hand. In this one, when her good friend, a psychoanalyst, finds a dead patient on his couch and is accused of murder, Kate springs into action. She hires her niece'so finacee to check out her ideas, and then, because one of the suspects didn't recognize a quote from D. H. Lawrence, she knows he is guilty. She concocts an idea that the next door doctor to the psychoanalyst is really a fraud who killed the real doctor years ago and killed the young woman (Kate's former student) when she realized this. And it's true---and very dumb.
April 15, 2008
I couldn't stand the pompous tone of the narrator, which I couldn't help but interpreting as the tone of the author herself. "Look at me! I'm so modern and intellectual!" Not that I have anything against being modern or intellectual; it just rubbed me the wrong way how she was so self-congratulatory.
July 18, 2015
I'll go with 4 stars b/c the story was no only interesting, but I think it was probably very good for it's time but for the most part, it stood the test of time. Also, being 217 pgs, it was a quick read & nice to intermingle after reading many 300-600 pgs books. I'm looking forward to trying some other this in series. It was interesting in a time when forensics was barely heard of let alone DNA a pipe dream, something like ears, in addition to dental, could give a clue to one's identity.
It's based around Kate Fansler, a Manhattan English professor in her approx late 30s to early 40s, who refers a former grad student (Janet Harrison) to her good friend & formerly brief lover, who is an analyst/psychiatrist (Dr. Emanuel Bauer). Six weeks later the woman ends up stabbed to death on Emanuel office couch (in an office attached to his home/apt) and him & his wife as suspects. In addition to Kate later becoming a suspect, she also doesn't believe her intelligent, slightly quirky friend or his wife could have done it. Also because the police think the dr. is guilty, Kate believes they won't look for other suspects or evidence so she looks into the victim and into finding additional suspects with the help of another dear friend, an A.D.A., and her niece's fiance, a 22 yr old with a service background.
It's based around Kate Fansler, a Manhattan English professor in her approx late 30s to early 40s, who refers a former grad student (Janet Harrison) to her good friend & formerly brief lover, who is an analyst/psychiatrist (Dr. Emanuel Bauer). Six weeks later the woman ends up stabbed to death on Emanuel office couch (in an office attached to his home/apt) and him & his wife as suspects. In addition to Kate later becoming a suspect, she also doesn't believe her intelligent, slightly quirky friend or his wife could have done it. Also because the police think the dr. is guilty, Kate believes they won't look for other suspects or evidence so she looks into the victim and into finding additional suspects with the help of another dear friend, an A.D.A., and her niece's fiance, a 22 yr old with a service background.
July 15, 2024
In the Last Analysis was the first of the Kate Fansler detective novels, and it shows in the somewhat formless shape of the story. Cross (Carolyn Heilbrun) wrote it in 1964, which accounts for the nascent sense of feminism, the unapologetic class snobbery, and the feeling that Fansler herself is not really meant to be viewed as a fully fledged character - she is the mouthpiece for the literary ideas of her creator. All of the novels share an off-putting intellectual superiority. I am forever annoyed with them, even though I have read them all. What keeps me reading are the (later) development of feminist ideas as they relate to literature. I am interested in her perspective (she taught English Lit at Columbia for years). In this first offering, there was not much to recommend it, except maybe one of the most ludicrous solutions to a mystery in some time. I had to read it twice to make sure I got what she was saying, and unfortunately, I had understood it. I can only assume that the fact that psychiatry was not her specialty was the reason for the holes in a plot that centered on Freudian analysis. I would not recommend this outing, except to die-hard Cross / Heilbrun fans who are committed to reading EVERYTHING she wrote.
October 9, 2016
Cross's debut 1964 mystery " introducing Kate Fansler, young, witty, erudite professor of literature...", additionally a quote from a newspaper on the back cover claims this short novel is "well-plotted" NOT, quite slow paced., "sophisticated", HMM, not sure I agree. "and witty" The only witty dialogue was found in chapter 11, which was actually quite entertaining.
A student of Kate's is found murdered in the office of a psychiatrist friend of hers, who is the prime suspect in the murder. Kate is convinced that he is innocent and along with feeling some responsibility towards the victim, she begins a little amateur sleuthing of her own. The story moved too slowly for me and although there was a out-of-the-blue twist at the end, I just couldn't be moved above "it is was just okay".
A student of Kate's is found murdered in the office of a psychiatrist friend of hers, who is the prime suspect in the murder. Kate is convinced that he is innocent and along with feeling some responsibility towards the victim, she begins a little amateur sleuthing of her own. The story moved too slowly for me and although there was a out-of-the-blue twist at the end, I just couldn't be moved above "it is was just okay".
January 25, 2008
I have stumbled upon-novels a year ago-on
a separate mission glancing Amazon.ca –
these looked filled with malicious plays – with
Kate – the detective of - - She conceives she’s the omnipotent antagonist who has done nothing more special than to help push a special student past analytical therapy – beyond one therapist – to whom he is murdered. a dreadful plot filled with recognitions entitling yet first - - - ‘the last analysis’ novel of a series. promises Kate - related detectives – for her, Kate’s special analyses holds her (syncopate) to intriguing mysteries. (sweet things happens to those whose wait. )
a separate mission glancing Amazon.ca –
these looked filled with malicious plays – with
Kate – the detective of - - She conceives she’s the omnipotent antagonist who has done nothing more special than to help push a special student past analytical therapy – beyond one therapist – to whom he is murdered. a dreadful plot filled with recognitions entitling yet first - - - ‘the last analysis’ novel of a series. promises Kate - related detectives – for her, Kate’s special analyses holds her (syncopate) to intriguing mysteries. (sweet things happens to those whose wait. )
June 25, 2009
A psychiatrist's patient is found murdered on his couch. His friend, an English professor, is sure he didn't do it, and investigates.
First published in 1964, and now a nice little period piece.
I found it fun and rather charming.
First published in 1964, and now a nice little period piece.
I found it fun and rather charming.
Read
February 9, 2016Wenn ich weiter versuchen würde, dieses Buch zu lesen, würde ich vermutlich entweder an Langeweile sterben oder in eine neue Lesekrise rutschen. Daher: Abgebrochen und weg damit.
(Braucht jemand sechs Bände der Büchergilde-Ausgabe der Serie? *g)
(Braucht jemand sechs Bände der Büchergilde-Ausgabe der Serie? *g)
December 17, 2007
Dated or maybe I just don't care for this set of New Yorkers where psychiatric analysis is a way of life. Not very suspenseful.
January 9, 2022
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 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!
October 5, 2025
Finalmente un giallo per nulla scontato, ultimamente sono spesso incappata in romanzi scontati e un po’ noiosi.
Ma “ in ultima analisi” di Amanda Cross mi ha ricordato perché mi piace rifugiarmi in un bel giallo.
La trama non è per nulla scontata, ci troviamo a New York dove la vita di uno psicanalista è di sua moglie ad un tratto vengono completamente messe a soqquadro per via di un omicidio avvenuto nello studio di quest’ultimo.
Tutto urla che il colpevole sia proprio lui o sua moglie.
Ma in questo caso che può effettivamente sembrare banale, nulla lo è.
La professoressa Kate Fansler , amica del povero psicanalista, con l’aiuto di un vice procuratore e un nipote acquisito riusciranno a capire cosa realmente è accaduto in quello studio il giorno dell’omicidio.
Il libro è molto scorrevole, pieno di citazioni letterarie che ho apprezzato, d’altronde la protagonista è una professoressa di lettere pertanto un po’ di citazioni sono quasi d’obbligo.
Ma “ in ultima analisi” di Amanda Cross mi ha ricordato perché mi piace rifugiarmi in un bel giallo.
La trama non è per nulla scontata, ci troviamo a New York dove la vita di uno psicanalista è di sua moglie ad un tratto vengono completamente messe a soqquadro per via di un omicidio avvenuto nello studio di quest’ultimo.
Tutto urla che il colpevole sia proprio lui o sua moglie.
Ma in questo caso che può effettivamente sembrare banale, nulla lo è.
La professoressa Kate Fansler , amica del povero psicanalista, con l’aiuto di un vice procuratore e un nipote acquisito riusciranno a capire cosa realmente è accaduto in quello studio il giorno dell’omicidio.
Il libro è molto scorrevole, pieno di citazioni letterarie che ho apprezzato, d’altronde la protagonista è una professoressa di lettere pertanto un po’ di citazioni sono quasi d’obbligo.
May 2, 2020
The first in the Kate Fansler series which finds Kate, a Professor of Literatur, caught up in a murder mystery when the body of a student is found murdered on the couch of her Psychiatrist friend. This becomes her first steps into amateur sleuthing.
The plot is good and the clues are followed well even if the police are slow to catch on. In the end, the catch is made in rather an unbelievable manner. The writing style has a formal manner and at times is not easily followed. As the start of a series, there was enough to keep me onto the next book.
An average beginning but enough for 3stars.
The plot is good and the clues are followed well even if the police are slow to catch on. In the end, the catch is made in rather an unbelievable manner. The writing style has a formal manner and at times is not easily followed. As the start of a series, there was enough to keep me onto the next book.
An average beginning but enough for 3stars.
August 17, 2023
I had high hopes for this book and the lit scholar in me loved the idea of an English Professor turned detective. But, the solution to the case was truly disappointing and forced...with gaping unexplained holes. Kate herself is not a very appealing or interesting character either.
March 13, 2021
Well, that was fun! I'm late to the Amanda Cross novels but happy I stumbled across them. Wordplay and " witty repartee". Serious crime but light hearted sleuthing.
August 18, 2022
When one of her students is murdered, Professor Kate Fansler takes it on herself to investigate.
Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel (1965). A Garland Classic of Crime Fiction.
Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel (1965). A Garland Classic of Crime Fiction.
December 17, 2023
Wirklich unangenehmer Schreibstil..
October 3, 2024
very intrigued by the idea of a cozy mystery series esp in the fall and wintertime. the way she landed the reveal didn’t quite hit, but I’m willing to keep giving cozy mystery core a try.
July 6, 2023
Thank you Goodreads! Sometimes I'll be reading a book and thinking to myself "this isn't very good. Is it just me? Will it get better? What does Goodreads think?" and in this case, as of this morning, Goodreads thought 3.56. And given that most Goodreads reviews skew very positive (at least from my perspective), 3.56 is actually a rather lowish number.
So I feel emboldened to stop reading. I don't care about any of the characters—I'm well into it and for instance I still know nothing about the victim other than she's beautiful and a student and wanted a psychoanalyst, while the characters I do know something about are dull and/or unpleasant.
Our supposed detective is particularly annoying, combining the smug self-satisfaction of Patricia Cornwell's awful Kay Scarpetta, with the assertive pushiness of Murder She Wrote's Jessica Fletcher (who's adorable, but only because of Angela Lansbury ... if Kay Scarpetta were that pushy, she'd be even worse). She swoops into the scene of the crime (no one's ordered to leave, despite it being a crime scene, just because it's their home/office) and begins badgering her friends to tell their story in great detail.
Lots of things ring false to my ears, for instance after being told he had two hours free (two clients cancelled back-to-back) the analyst asserts he went for a jog. We're told that it's highly unlikely anyone would believe this. Really? What's he supposed to do, twiddle his thumbs for half an hour, then pace for forty-five minutes, then go back to twiddling? Why is "I shall go for a run, given my unexpected free time?" such an unlikely thing to do? If he were described as incredibly obese, and suggested he was going for a run for the first-time ever, then sure, it's a bit surprising, but he's just a normal guy who runs often and has running clothes.
So now we have unpleasant characters, and an author who's not too sure what's unlikely or not. Oh, and then she had the wife casually state something like "no doubt the killer waited until the last minute to cancel those appointments, or I might have have cancelled my own errand and we could have stayed in together making love in the morning," without any of the other characters present wincing and looking a bit embarrassed. Maybe that's on me (if Coco Chanel announced "I love making love in the morning," I'd take it in stride, but it just didn't seem natural as pleasant conversation among friends).
Oh, and of course there's the usual feeling of "this is NOT how people would behave when someone's been gruesomely murdered in the next room," but that permeates so many mysteries, I had to let go of that nit long, long ago.
Anyway, I'm stopping. I still have Peter Robinsons to read (the last one wasn't great, but usually I like them), and Joyce Porters (from the past), and I've yet to finish the Murder Most Unladylike series, and I'm re-reading Sayers and Christie—so good to know I'm not going to regret not trying the Kate Fansler Mysteries.
(5* = amazing, terrific book, one of my all-time favourites, 4* = very good book, 3* = good book, but nothing to particularly rave about, 2* = disappointing book, and 1* = awful, just awful. As a statistician I know most books are 3s, but I am biased in my selection and end up mostly with 4s, thank goodness.)
So I feel emboldened to stop reading. I don't care about any of the characters—I'm well into it and for instance I still know nothing about the victim other than she's beautiful and a student and wanted a psychoanalyst, while the characters I do know something about are dull and/or unpleasant.
Our supposed detective is particularly annoying, combining the smug self-satisfaction of Patricia Cornwell's awful Kay Scarpetta, with the assertive pushiness of Murder She Wrote's Jessica Fletcher (who's adorable, but only because of Angela Lansbury ... if Kay Scarpetta were that pushy, she'd be even worse). She swoops into the scene of the crime (no one's ordered to leave, despite it being a crime scene, just because it's their home/office) and begins badgering her friends to tell their story in great detail.
Lots of things ring false to my ears, for instance after being told he had two hours free (two clients cancelled back-to-back) the analyst asserts he went for a jog. We're told that it's highly unlikely anyone would believe this. Really? What's he supposed to do, twiddle his thumbs for half an hour, then pace for forty-five minutes, then go back to twiddling? Why is "I shall go for a run, given my unexpected free time?" such an unlikely thing to do? If he were described as incredibly obese, and suggested he was going for a run for the first-time ever, then sure, it's a bit surprising, but he's just a normal guy who runs often and has running clothes.
So now we have unpleasant characters, and an author who's not too sure what's unlikely or not. Oh, and then she had the wife casually state something like "no doubt the killer waited until the last minute to cancel those appointments, or I might have have cancelled my own errand and we could have stayed in together making love in the morning," without any of the other characters present wincing and looking a bit embarrassed. Maybe that's on me (if Coco Chanel announced "I love making love in the morning," I'd take it in stride, but it just didn't seem natural as pleasant conversation among friends).
Oh, and of course there's the usual feeling of "this is NOT how people would behave when someone's been gruesomely murdered in the next room," but that permeates so many mysteries, I had to let go of that nit long, long ago.
Anyway, I'm stopping. I still have Peter Robinsons to read (the last one wasn't great, but usually I like them), and Joyce Porters (from the past), and I've yet to finish the Murder Most Unladylike series, and I'm re-reading Sayers and Christie—so good to know I'm not going to regret not trying the Kate Fansler Mysteries.
(5* = amazing, terrific book, one of my all-time favourites, 4* = very good book, 3* = good book, but nothing to particularly rave about, 2* = disappointing book, and 1* = awful, just awful. As a statistician I know most books are 3s, but I am biased in my selection and end up mostly with 4s, thank goodness.)
August 14, 2016
the mystery part's a mess, but how much does that matter in a book like this one? you could say that about sayers' novels, too. the detective-scholar is a figure that has always inspired a considerable amount of longing and attraction for me, for obvious reasons, and while kate fansler is no harriet vane, the lovely precision of her observations often filled me with a simple and spontaneous delight. right in the prologue, for example, before we've barely even been introduced to kate, we get this sentence from her perspective: "It was the sort of January day when even she, who loathed spring, longed for it." not even a page in, and i already had a sense of who this person was - and liked her very much for it. also, just look at how the first chapter starts:
Someone had chalked "April is the cruelest month" on the steps of Baldwin Hall. Kate, unimpressed by the erudition, agreed with the sentiment.
really! how could i not like this!! kate's own literary erudition is on flagrant display at almost every turn, but it is not as if the author didn't have the credentials for it; amanda cross (/carolyn gold heilbrun) was the apparently the first woman to receive tenure in the english department at columbia (in 1971), and this book (first published in 1964) can be read as a kind of fascinating historical document in its own right. (don't get me started on the psychoanalysis stuff...!) at the very least you learn that things like grade-grubbing students, barely comprehensible term papers, and hostile administrators were also topics of frequent complaint by 1960s academics.
Lilian had warned her that when members of this department got together, they never discussed anything but department politics, the exigencies of the teaching schedule, the insufficiencies of the administration and the pecularities - moral, physical, psychological, and sexual - of certain absent members. What Kate was not prepared for was the violence with which all these things were discussed, the enthusiasm with which points were made which must certainly, it seemed, have been made before.
on a more serious note, this book also has some interesting meditations on intimacy as a powerful and legitimate mode of knowledge production vis-a-vis state-sanctioned forms of epistemology (a distinction that, notably, breaks down along gender lines in this particular novel) - which is one of the reasons why fans of classic detective stories most likely won't enjoy it much. i enjoyed it quite a bit myself, despite the clunkiness of the plot, though some of that enjoyment is also probably just happiness at having discovered a new mystery series to devour.
Someone had chalked "April is the cruelest month" on the steps of Baldwin Hall. Kate, unimpressed by the erudition, agreed with the sentiment.
really! how could i not like this!! kate's own literary erudition is on flagrant display at almost every turn, but it is not as if the author didn't have the credentials for it; amanda cross (/carolyn gold heilbrun) was the apparently the first woman to receive tenure in the english department at columbia (in 1971), and this book (first published in 1964) can be read as a kind of fascinating historical document in its own right. (don't get me started on the psychoanalysis stuff...!) at the very least you learn that things like grade-grubbing students, barely comprehensible term papers, and hostile administrators were also topics of frequent complaint by 1960s academics.
Lilian had warned her that when members of this department got together, they never discussed anything but department politics, the exigencies of the teaching schedule, the insufficiencies of the administration and the pecularities - moral, physical, psychological, and sexual - of certain absent members. What Kate was not prepared for was the violence with which all these things were discussed, the enthusiasm with which points were made which must certainly, it seemed, have been made before.
on a more serious note, this book also has some interesting meditations on intimacy as a powerful and legitimate mode of knowledge production vis-a-vis state-sanctioned forms of epistemology (a distinction that, notably, breaks down along gender lines in this particular novel) - which is one of the reasons why fans of classic detective stories most likely won't enjoy it much. i enjoyed it quite a bit myself, despite the clunkiness of the plot, though some of that enjoyment is also probably just happiness at having discovered a new mystery series to devour.
August 2, 2022
In the Last Analysis was published in 1964, the first of the Kate Fansler novels. Kate is young, and second wave feminism even younger, so it is understandable that she responds to Reed’s condescending comments with girlish good nature. It is clear that her determination and intellect are key to rescuing her friend from a murder charge, although her imagination is most noted by others. Delightfully, the dry wit characteristic of the Dorothy Sayers style of description is already evident here and there in this early work, for example, “Although the main lobby of the building was stiff with attendants, this small one boasted only the elevator man who, in keeping with his kind, spend a good part of his time going up to, or down from, the upper floors.”
Although I found this book to be the least memorable of the Amanda Cross novels, that simply made it all the more fun to reread it!
Although I found this book to be the least memorable of the Amanda Cross novels, that simply made it all the more fun to reread it!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 5, 2007
This is the opening novel with Kate Fansler as the intellectual academic reluctant detective. We find all the ingredients in the first book that made the series interesting and different: intellectual puzzles, the mystery set in a somewhat ivory tower space, here, a psychoanalyst's office and home. You get literary discussions and mentions (Lord Peter *smile*), psychoanalytic debates about Freud, etc. The plot is fairly simple : why would a former student of Kate end up stabbed on the couch of the psychoanalyst Kate recommended to her? Did the analyst do it? I had less than 50 pages left to read and I still had no idea of who and why and didn't mind. Yes, the ending is somewhat far fetched but has a certain flair in the way it's delivered and constructed. I liked it.
January 16, 2022
Dauerte etwas um Fahrt aufzunehmen. Viel Beschreibung der Peripherie: Gebäude, Tagesabläufe, und Literaturreferenzen (die ich größten Teils mangels literarischen Wissens ausblenden musste).
Die Protagonistin war mir erst unsympathisch, je besessener sie von ihrer detektivischen Arbeit wurde desto lieber mochte ich sie.
Die Auflösung kommt schließlich etwas plötzlich und wirkt etwas konstruiert.
Ansonsten liest sich der Roman leicht, und ist meistens einigermaßen unterhaltsam. Ich muss mich an das Genre noch gewöhnen. Die 300 Seiten für eine Kriminalgeschichte in Black-Story-Manier waren über weite Strecken etwas langweilig.
Die Protagonistin war mir erst unsympathisch, je besessener sie von ihrer detektivischen Arbeit wurde desto lieber mochte ich sie.
Die Auflösung kommt schließlich etwas plötzlich und wirkt etwas konstruiert.
Ansonsten liest sich der Roman leicht, und ist meistens einigermaßen unterhaltsam. Ich muss mich an das Genre noch gewöhnen. Die 300 Seiten für eine Kriminalgeschichte in Black-Story-Manier waren über weite Strecken etwas langweilig.
August 8, 2022
I wasn't sure what to make of this book. I had a modern edition and didn't know that it was actually quite old. So I asked myself why someone would copy this style of crime novel without modernising the narrative itself. Now that I know where it came from, I wonder if I still need to read books like this today - and I'm not sure. It's entertaining, but nothing that really sticks in my mind as a reader. Maybe you have to recognize it as something novel and exciting for it's time of publishing, but I would not recommend it to many people.
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