Sweet Death, Kind Death

I have mixed response to this mystery novel set in academe. The sentence structure and writing style is academic, almost Dickensonian in elaboration and convolution. This made it more difficult to read. However, its use of literary references and intelligent protagonists provided an element of fun.. I might read some more of her work in the future, but it's not on the top of my list. I rate this book somewhere between a '3' and a '4'.

This fascinating book presents Kate Fansler with the task of understanding the life of Clare College's exceptional and unusual Professor Patrice Umphelby who is found dead in the lake on campus. The question is whether it was suicide or murder, and Kate is asked to investigate. However, this novel appears less a murder mystery than a paean for justifying suicide. In this context, it is a sad book. Cross weaves opinions of suicide by a number of well know literary figures into this novel. In retrospect, this novel seems to state the thinking behind her decision, although healthy, to commit suicide in 2003. Thus, the story, may affect the current reader, who knows of Cross' suicide, in sadly unexpected ways. As usual Cross displays an exceptional understanding of human motivations, and her writing is pithy and well structured. I rated this four rather than five only because her discussion of death, in this otherwise well designed work, was somewhat depressing when considered in light of her own death. However, in predicting the motivation for her 2003 death it provides some exceptional insights.

Kate Fansler attended the memorial service for Patrice Umphelby, a professor at Clare College. At the time she did not think that she knew Patrice but later she learned from Patrices's biographers Herbert and Archer that she had met her once in Scotland. Kate is someone who evades memories. Her husband Reed works in the office of the DA notwithstanding the fact that most people over forty pursue other legal careers. By the end of the book it is learned that Reed plans to begin teaching at Columbia Law School. Kate is asked by the president of Clare College to serve on a board of advisors for an institute being set up by her friend Madeline, a psychoanalyst, and to investigate the death of Patrice. Patrice wrote in a journal that the human mind has trouble taking in aging. Madeline is of the opinion that Patrice was appreciated insufficiently at Clare College. She was eccentric but sane. Clare College it is charged was not receptive to the unorthodox. Indeed, foul play is uncovered by Kate Fansler evidencing professional jealousy and a different view of middle age. The book is a nearly perfect mystery story. The views of the issues and the personalities are expressed in interesting and cogent language.

This is the first Amanda Cross mystery I've read. I did enjoy it, but I must agree with the previous reviewer, who said that it was a good book but not much of a whodunit. The mystery really takes a back seat to literary discussions and character analyses. (And the ending, while fun, emerges out of the blue.) I also found that, especially towards the middle and end of the book, the characters all tended to speak in a mannered way that I found slightly improbable-- as though they're all declaiming instead of just talking.I picked the book up because it dealt with a women's college; as a student at a women's college, I'm always curious to see how they're treated in literature. I found Cross' view interesting, although nothing like my own.