Amanda Cross: The Edge of Doom (USA 2003)

From the Publisher:
"URBANITY, THY NAME IS FANSLER. Kate Fansler -- literature professor, confirmed city dweller, sometime sleuth, and all-around cultured person -- can always be relied on for erudite wit with a literary twist." -- The Seattle Times

Just when Kate Fansler thinks life couldn't possibly hold any more surprises, she receives a phone call from Laurence, the eldest of her imperious brothers, who has some startling news. Laurence tells Kate that a strange man came to his office claiming to be Kate's father. So it's quite possible that she is not a Fansler at all. Dangerous curves in the road lie ahead for her, especially after she meets the man himself. When more life-threatening secrets and deceptions emerge, Kate and the Fansler family are suddenly pitched perilously close to the edge of doom.

"THE CROWN OF CROSS'S CAREER, a search for Kate's roots unfolding almost entirely in carefully wrought dialogue that perfectly mingles detective work, literary criticism, and the tale of the heroine's birthright." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"INTELLECTUALLY LIVELY ACADEMIC MYSTERIES." -- The New York Times Book Review

Amanda Cross: The Edge of Doom. A Kate Fansler Mystery. Fawcett Books, ISBN: 0345452372 (November, 2003), 227 p., $6.99.

Amanda Cross: The Edge of Doom (USA 2000)

From the Publisher:
Rich and witty, the literary whodunits by Amanda Cross are a delight for readers who like their mysteries smart and suspenseful. Now comes the highly anticipated sequel to her Kate Fansler novel, Honest Doubt, which the Providence Journal called "one of [her] best books in years." Here, Cross takes her beloved protagonist into uncharted territory, turning Kate Fansler's world upside down.

Just when Kate Fansler thinks life couldn't possibly hold any more surprises, she receives a phone call from Laurence, the eldest of her imperious brothers. But a woman as sharp as Kate knows that the moment one stops believing in life's little bends in the road is the time when it has more twists in store.

Kate has always been different from the other Fanslers - a free and independent thinker in a family where propriety and decorum are prized above all. She has always assumed it was because she was the youngest and the only girl in the family. But over a drink with Laurence, Kate's whole understanding of herself is thrown into question as he calmly tells her that a strange man came to his office claiming to be Kate's father - and it's quite possible that she is not a Fansler after all.

There are even more dangerous curves in the road for Kate Fansler, especially after she meets the man who calls himself her father. When more life-threatening secrets and lies emerge, Kate and the Fansler family are suddenly pitched perilously close to the edge of doom...

Amanda Cross is the pseudonymous author of the bestselling Kate Fansler mysteries, of which The Edge of Doom is the fourteenth. As Carolyn G. Heilbrun, she is the Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities Emerita at Columbia University. She has served as president of the Modern Language Association as well as vice president of the Authors Guild. Dr. Heilbrun is also the author of Writing a Woman’s Life, Hamlet’s Mother and Other Women, The Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem, and the New York Times Notable Book, The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty.

Amanda Cross: The Edge of Doom. A Kate Fansler Novel. Ballantine Books, ISBN: 0345452364 (November, 2002), 263 p., $22.95.