Favorite Author: Amanda Cross

Amanda Cross is the pen name of Carolyn Gold Heilbrun, a tenured English lit professor at Columbia University. She wrote many non-fiction books under her own name, including a biography of Gloria Steinem. But she wrote her series of mystery novels featuring Kate Fansler, English professor and amateur sleuth, under her pen name.

There are 14 books in the Kate Fansler series. I started the series because I like the idea of an English professor solving mysteries. Duh. I was an English major.

I've only read the first two, which is why those titles are in red. The rest are in blue because they are all on my TBR shelf, because I've been a little compulsive about finding them all.

• In the Last Analysis (1964)

• The James Joyce Murder (1967) (reviewed here)

• Poetic Justice (1970)

• The Theban Mysteries (1971)

• The Question of Max (1976)

• Death in a Tenured Position (1981)

• Sweet Death, Kind Death (1984)

• No Word From Winifred (1986)

• A Trap for Fools (1989)

• The Players Come Again (1990)

• An Imperfect Spy (1995)

• The Puzzled Heart (1998)

• Honest Doubt (2000)

• The Edge of Doom (2002)

UPDATED December 17, 2016. The entire series belongs on my list of Campus Novels.