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.
Overview 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 1In the Last Analysis19642The James Joyce Murder19673Poetic Justice19704The Theban Mysteries19715Question of Max19766Death in a Tenured Position19817Sweet Death, Kind Death19848No Word from WinifredJun-19869A Trap for FoolsApr-198910The Players Come AgainOct-199011An Imperfect SpyJan-199512The Puzzled HeartJan-199813Honest DoubtNov-200014The Edge of DoomOct-2002
Bibliography New York Times article: "Rage in a Tenured Position"