Amanda Cross: Sweet Death, Kind Death (USA 1989)

From the Publisher:
"NO ONE HAS A SHARPER EYE THAN AMANDA CROSS." -- Washington Post Book World
Every college has its resident "personality," and Clare College, an exclusive women's institution in New England, is no exception. A renowned historian and a successful novelist, the troublesome Patrice Umphelby was an object both of great admiration and utter disdain -- until her death by drowning in the campus lake.

The verdict is suicide. But the college president grows suspicious and calls in noted professor/detective Kate Fansler.

Ostensibly serving on a task force about Gender Studies, Kate manages to get invited for sherry (which she loathes) and dinner (creamed chicken on rice, no doubt) by assorted faculty members, the better to learn about Patrice's life. But only when certain facts about Patrice's views on death emerge can Kate dig up the evidence she needs to solve this splendid mystery.

Amanda Cross: Sweet Death, Kind Death. A Kate Fansler Mystery. Ballantine Books, ISBN: 0345352548 (January, 1989), 178 p., $3.95.

Amanda Cross: Sweet Death, Kind Death (USA 1985)

From the Publisher:
"NO ONE HAS A SHARPER EYE THAN AMANDA CROSS." -- Washington Post Book World
Every college has its resident "personality," and Clare College, an exclusive women's institution in New England, is no exception. A renowned historian and a successful novelist, the troublesome Patrice Umphelby was an object both of great admiration and utter disdain -- until her death by drowning in the campus lake.

The verdict is suicide. But the college president grows suspicious and calls in noted professor/detective Kate Fansler.

Ostensibly serving on a task force about Gender Studies, Kate manages to get invited for sherry (which she loathes) and dinner (creamed chicken on rice, no doubt) by assorted faculty members, the better to learn about Patrice's life. But only when certain facts about Patrice's views on death emerge can Kate dig up the evidence she needs to solve this splendid mystery.

Amanda Cross: Sweet Death, Kind Death. A Kate Fansler Mystery. Ballantine Books, ISBN: 0345311779 (March, 1985), 178 p., $2.95.

Amanda Cross: Sweet Death, Kind Death (USA 1984)

From the Publisher:
"Sweet Death, Kind Death is one of the best of the Cross novels. Kate Fansler continues to raise our consciousness on several levels -- to the joys of literature, the dynamics of feminism, and the pleasure of a good detective story." -- Dorothy Salisbury Davis
"Amanda Cross has done it again. Sweet Death, Kind Death is another splendid whodunit, filled with all the good things we've come to expect from Ms. Cross: intelligence, urbanity, and wonderful, wry humor." -- Susan Isaacs

Even Kate Fansler, the professor-sleuth who "blows like an astringent wind through the ivy of academe" (Detroit News), is puzzled by the death of Patrice Umphelby of Clare College.

Patrice had everything to live for: she was a renowned historian, a successful novelist, and a genuine "personality." That was why her suicide by drowning in the campus lake shocked everyone from college president to department secretary. But when Kate is called in (ostensibly to head a committee on gender studies, secretly to investigate Patrice's death), she discovers that all was not as peaceful at Clare as it seemed. Patrice's success had stirred jealousy and professional envy, even among those who claimed to be her friends. Furthermore, the odd suicide letter left some very unsettling loose ends. But if it was murder, why are there no suspects?

Just as Kate is beginning to think she's met up with the perfect crime, a tiny clue surfaces, and with true Fanslerian ingenuity she solves the puzzle in a way that will delight any mystery lover's heart.

This is the seventh Amanda Cross mystery, following In the Last Analysis, The James Joyce Murders, Poetic Justice, The Theban Mysteries, The Question of Max, and Death in a Tenured Position (which in 1981 won the prestigious Nero Wolfe Award for mystery fiction).

Amanda Cross: Sweet Death, Kind Death. A Kate Fansler Mystery. Dutton, ISBN: 0525242414 (April, 1984), 177 p., $13.95.