The Puzzled Heart

This is the first Kate Fansler mystery I've read, and I'm hooked. There were so many twists and turns in this mystery, that I couldn't figure out the murderer. A great read!

Apparently I made a mistake starting with this as my first Amanda Cross. The politics are intrusive - and I'm not any Rush Limbaugh/Bob Grant follower. As an antidote I would recommend Fool's Gold by Jane S Smith which makes good fun of the feminist left. The plot is initially concerned with the politically motivated kidnapping of a left-wing professor's husband but becomes complex and ulimately more ingenious than plausible. Nevertheless this contains some witty dialog, memorable characters and sharp obervations on the academic scene. An excellent dog.

This is good light reading Maybe you have to sympathize with liberal, feminist political beliefs to like this book and maybe not. The author has been a distinguished professor of literature at Columbia University for many years, so the academic setting, one assumes, is rendered authentically. I liked the fallible, intelligent protagonist Kate Fansler. The conclusion wasn't anticlimactic as I found so many mystery novel's endings are, maybe because my hopes weren't too high for the plot of the book. I assume that Leslie, Harriet and Reed are regular characters in Cross's novels. I'll read another book by this author someday

Finally a mystery novel that is well written. My interest never let up. In addition to a intricate and unusual plot, the characters are nicely drawn and the dialogue is tight and perfect. This was a real pleasure to read.

Professor Kate Fensler is extremely distraught because her spouse attorney Reed Amherst has been kidnapped and the note she receives warns her to cease her "insane feminist" ramblings. If she wants to see her husband alive, the kidnappers demand that Kate, an outspoken feminist, publicly denounce everything she has supported and fully believes is morally right. Kate has never felt so hopeless so she turns to a close friend, Harriet Furst, part owner of a detective agency, for assistance. Harriet and her partner Toni have no problem rescuing Reed. However, fiding out who was behind the abduction turns out to be much more difficult. If Reed's enemies from his days in the DA office are ruled out, the list still remains very long . Could it have the anti-feminist group that has threatened Kate before? Or perhaps, someone from the university where Kate works. With the help of Bancroft the Saint Bernard, Kate plans to learn who could have destroyed her feeling of invincibility by kidnapping Reed. As expected from the highly intellectual word processor of Amanda Cross, the twelfth Kate Fensler novel is very sophisticated, very pro feminist, and very well written. The humbling of Kate adds much humanization to what seemingly has been a superwoman. The support cast, several who have been in previous novels in the series, turns the scholarly, controversial, yet puzzling story line into a first rate reading experience that will be loved by everyone except the most macho pigs and sows. Harriet Klausner