Kate Fansler può essere considerata il prototipo della detective femminista. È la protagonista di una serie molto popolare di quattordici romanzi investigativi iniziata nel 1964 e conclusa nel 2002, professoressa un po' supponente (non risparmia allusioni contro il maschilismo di Freud), spregiudicata, apertamente indipendente, personalità prorompente, piomba casualmente in questo suo primo caso. Una studentessa le ha chiesto di consigliarle uno psicanalista cui affidarsi. Lei fa il nome di un amico molto stimato, suo ex amante, Emanuel Bauer. Tempo dopo, però, Janet Harrison - questo il nome della studentessa - viene ritrovata uccisa proprio nello studio di Emanuel, distesa sul lettino delle sedute, trafitta da un coltello proveniente dalla cucina della casa-studio. È la moglie Nicola a ritrovare il cadavere. La polizia non può che sospettare dello psicanalista: nessuno, se non lui, avrebbe potuto colpirla mentre Janet era in quella posizione e in quelle circostanze. Ma manca il movente. Kate non riesce a crederci: troppo equilibrato Emanuel, e soprattutto troppo intelligente per un simile crimine. E poi, la vittima si rivela una ragazza circondata di misteri, del resto anche la coppia dei coniugi non manca di stranezze. Kate vi si addentra per risolvere un omicidio misterioso, un enigma che sfida l'apparenza, la logica e la psicologia. Ha un vantaggio investigativo, rispetto alla polizia che ha l'obbligo di mantenersi nei confini del probabile e dell'evidente: lei è una mente aperta, sa come affrontare le più sommerse profondità umane.

Ogni sogno fatto da un bambino è uno strumento prezioso per comprendere la sua personalità, la sua crescita e il suo stato psicofisico. Raccontando un suo sogno, il bambino apre la porta della sua anima. Amanda Cross spiega come interpretare il significato delle principali categorie di sogni: dagli animali alle persone, dagli elementi naturali alle ricorrenze, dagli oggetti alle forme astratte. Con tanti consigli per affrontare incubi e terrori notturni insieme ai figli. Alberto Pellai suggerisce come utilizzare il racconto dei sogni per costruire un nuovo rapporto con loro: più consapevole, più empatico, più profondo. Il primo manuale per nutrire la vita interiore e il dialogo tra genitori e figli. Un libro da tenere sempre sul comodino e da leggere con tutta la famiglia. Introduzione di Alberto Pellai.

L'archivio della corrispondenza tra James Joyce e il suo editore Sam Lingerwell è affidato provvisoriamente a Kate Fansler affinché possa riordinarne le preziose carte. Per le vacanze estive Kate si stabilisce quindi ad Araby, nella casa di campagna del defunto editore, insieme al piccolo nipote Leo con il suo giovane tutore William e ad Emmet Crawford, un ricercatore che la aiuta nel progetto. Si uniscono al gruppo il procuratore legale Reed Amhearst, caro amico di Kate, e due professori universitari, Grace Knole ed Eveline Chisana, figure che incarnano i valori femminili amati dall'autrice. Il delizioso villaggio viene però sconvolto dall'omicidio di Mary Bradford, una donna pettegola, detestata dagli abitanti. Kate si trova a dover indagare sull'assassinio che sembra coinvolgere uno dei suoi ospiti...

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


From the Hardcover edition.

Professor Charles Haycock is dead from a hearty dose of his own heart medication. The mystery is not why Haycock was murdered-very few could stomach the woman-hating prof?but who did the deed. Estelle "Woody" Woodhaven, a private investigator hired to find the killer, naturally enlists the help of that indefatigable amateur sleuth, Kate Fansler. Together, they start to pull at the loose ends of the very tangled Clifton College English Department. The list of suspects is longer than the freshman survey reading list. And as the women defuse the host of literary landmines set out for them, Woody suspects they?re only scratching the surface of a very large and sinister plot. . . .

For a century, wealthy New York girls have been trained for the rigors of upper class life at the Theban, an exclusive private school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Kate Fansler is lured back to her alma mater to teach a seminar on Antigone. But a hostile note addressed to Kate, the uniform mistrustfulness of her six, bright students, and the Dobermans that patrol the building at night suggest trouble on the spot. As Kate leads her class through the inexorable tragic unfolding of Antigone, a parallel nightmare envelops the school and everyone connected with it. . . .

When beautiful Janet Harrison asks English professor Kate Fansler to recommend a Manhattan psychoanalyst, Kate immediately sends the girl to her dear friend and former lover, Dr. Emanuel Bauer. Seven weeks later, the girl is stabbed to death on Emanuel's couch--with incriminating fingerprints on the murder weapon. To Kate, the idea of her brilliant friend killing anyone is preposterous, but proving it seems an impossible task. For Janet had no friends, no lover, no family. Why, then, should someone feel compelled to kill her? Kate's analytic techniques leave no stone unturned--not even the one under which a venomous killer once again lies coiled and ready to strike. . . .

Student riots have ravaged the distinguished New York City university where Kate Fansler teaches.  In the ensuing disarray, the survival of the university's plebeian stepchild, University College, seems doubtful. President Jeremiah Cudlipp is snobbishly determined to ax it; and as sycophantic professors fall in line behind him, the rally of Kate and few rebellious colleagues seems doomed. It is a fight to the death, and only a miracle--or perhaps a murder--can save their beloved institution. . . .

Kate Fansler's husband, Reed, has been kidnapped--and will be killed unless Kate obeys the carefully delineated directives of a ransom note. Tormented by her own puzzled heart, Kate seeks solace and wise counsel from both old friends and new. But who precisely is the enemy? Is he or she a vengeful colleague? A hostile student? A terrorist sect? The questions mount as Kate searches for Reed--accompanied by her trusty new companion, a Saint Bernard puppy named Bancroft. Hovering near Kate and Bancroft are rampant cruelties and calculated menace. The moment is ripe for murder. . . .

Amanda Cross is master of the American literary whodunit. In her delicately menacing short fiction, assembled here in one volume, dangerous impulses seize the most unlikely individuals, and everyday existence is fast eclipsed by the bizarre. Among the compelling intrigues: The cold-blooded murder of Mrs. Byron Lloyd, shot dead during a writers' panel discussion . . . the enigma of the nameless toddler who walks out of the bushes one New England summer afternoon . . . the reappearance of a missing Constable drawing just where it can cause the most trouble . . . and other wonderful mysteries, many of which star the incomparable amateur sleuth Kate Fansler.

'FASCINATING . . . The dialogue is, as always, elegant and polished.'
--Los Angeles Times
While guest-teaching a semester at Schuyler Law School, Kate Fansler gets to know an extraordinary secretary named Harriet, who patterns her life after John le Carré's character George Smiley. Harriet reveals that Schuyler has some serious skeletons swinging in its perfectly appointed closets, including the fate of Schuyler's only tenured female professor and a faculty wife who has killed her husband. As if Kate doesn't have enough to tackle, she is also up against the men who comprise the faculty of Schuyler itself--a thoroughly unapologetic bastion of white male power, mediocrity, and misogyny. Although she has only a few months on campus, Kate refuses to let Schuyler's rigid ideals and insistence on secrecy suppress her indefatigable curiosity--or her obsession with the truth. . . .
'Cross manages to keep this book as lighthearted and witty as any of the Kate Fansler mysteries, while depicting an institution as lethal as any cold war.'
--Marilyn French
'A funny, snappish polemic on political correctitude that takes great relish in Kate's sardonic views.'
--The New York Times Book Review


From the Paperback edition.

When Winifred, the niece of a renowned British novelist goes missing after she agreed to be interviewed for her esteemed aunt's biography, the biographer taps Kate Fansler to find her. Kate spots clues all right, but finding the person is a lot trickier than she thought....


From the Paperback edition.

"If by some cruel oversight you haven't discovered Amanda Cross, you have an uncommon pleasure in store for you."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
When Clare College's resident eccentric Patrice Umphelby is found drowned in the campus lake, it's called a suicide. But the college president grows suspicious and calls in noted professor/detective Kate Fansler to research the matter. Ingratiating herself with her academic colleagues to learn more about Patrice's life, Kate digs up the evidence she needs to understand her death....


From the Paperback edition.

'If by some cruel oversight you haven't discovered Amanda Cross, you have an uncommon pleasure in store for you.'
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Kate Fansler is vacationing in the sweet and harmless Berkshires, sorting through the letters of Henry James. But when her next-door neighbor is murdered, and all her houseguests are prime suspects, her idyll turns prosaic, indeed....