The Edge of Doom

September 30, 2002
The 13th Kate Fansler novel, following Honest Doubt
(2000), takes an inward and somewhat less satisfying turn to focus on Kate herself. Previous outings featured crimes committed in or related to academic institutions, but this time a family matter kicks off the story—a stranger has approached Kate's pompous oldest brother, Laurence, claiming to be Kate's biological father. DNA analysis removes one kind of uncertainty about the relationship between Kate and Jason "Jay" Ebenezer Smith, but other kinds crop up when Jay disappears. Kate's lawyer husband, Reed, unearths more evidence of Jay's past under a different name than "Smith," and different versions of a story about art theft lurking in his background get bandied about. "Not much action in this play," Kate thinks to herself after an unsatisfactory verbal exchange, a comment that could apply as well to this novel. Similarly, in contrast to most crime fiction, there's hardly any description of the main settings (apartments, offices and restaurants in Manhattan), perhaps an intentional illustration of Kate's self-analysis about her lack of visual awareness of people and places. Without the thrills and excitement normally encountered in a mystery, the reader is left with the literary wit and classy conversation for which Cross is best known. For many, that's reason enough to celebrate. (Nov. 1)FYI:Amanda Cross is the pseudonym of Carolyn G. Heilbrun, author of
Writing a Woman's Life (1988) and other feminist works.

July 15, 2002
Carolyn Heilbrun becomes Cross to write this story of a young woman who finds her life threatened after a stranger claims to be her real father.

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2002
This thought piece from literary scholar Carolyn Heilbrun (writing under her pseudonym Amanda Cross) burnishes and deepens the character of New Yorker, feminist, and literature professor Kate Fansler. Kate has always held herself apart from her conservative and dull older brothers, and when the eldest summons her to his club to relay the news that " their" father might not be " her" father, she's astonished. When DNA proves that an elderly gentleman named Jay, who has sought out the family after 50 years, is indeed her father, Kate is intrigued by their physical resemblances and the admission that her genteel and repressed mother did indeed have one grand passion. Jay's professional and personal life spins out in a web of rather melodramatic mystery; what is utterly compelling here is the elegant counterpoint of the ancient nature-versus-nurture argument. Shakespeare and Edith Wharton quotations bolster a vision of fathers and daughters as wellsprings of grace, each for the other, and as always, Kate's husband, Reed, is the almost perfect spouse. Very satisfying on both an intellectual and an emotional level.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)