Ballantine, New York 1996

 Amanda Cross is the pseudonym of Carolyn Heilbrun, who as a professor at university wrote several works of literary criticism, before starting  her Kate Fansler mysteries.

The heroine Kate Fansler, literary professor, seems to be well established with her readers as well as her husband, a law professor. They both take a temporary job at Schuyler Law School, where Kate teaches about “women and law in literature”. When Kate finds out, that their only female professor was run down by a lorry and killed, she doesn´t rest, until the truth is found.

This could make a good, old-fashioned whodunit, but unfortunately Cross-Heilbrun is more interested in exposing male chauvinism in the world of academia. This may be so, and not surprising, but is only marginally thrilling for a mystery-reader. Heilbrun should better concentrate on“women and law in literature”, if this is her real topic and not  pretend to write a mystery.