Cross, Amanda

(US 1926–2003)

Amanda Cross is the pseudonym of Carolyn Heilbrun, who was a professor of humanities at Columbia University, and her books are rooted in the academic world. Her feminist heroine, Kate Fansler, is a professor of English literature, a lively, perceptive, and literate character whose enquiring mind leads her to play the amateur sleuth. In The Theban Mysteries (1990) Kate returns to her old school to conduct a seminar on Antigone, the defiant Greek heroine. Then a dead body is discovered in the school building and Kate is drawn into the investigation. The Players Come Again (1992) sees Kate commissioned to write the biography of recluse Gabrielle Foxx, wife of the famous writer. Was Gabrielle the handmaiden to Foxx or the creative talent that enabled him to write? Kate's research into the past points to a dark mystery.

Joan Smith, Sarah Dunant  CS