The Collected Stories of Amanda Cross [Paperback]

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.Amanda Cross is the pseudonymous author of the bestselling Kate Fansler mysteries. As Carolyn G. Heilbrun, she is the Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities Emerita at Columbia University. She has served as president of the Modern Language Association as well as vice president of the Authors Guild. Dr. Heilbrun is also the author of Writing a Woman's Life, Hamlet's Mother and Other Women, The Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem, and the New York Times Notable Book The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty.INTRODUCTION
 
 
 
In 1987, I had faithfully promised the publisher of a Carolyn Heilbrun book that I would not work on another Kate Fansler novel until I had finished the nonfiction work then edging toward completion. The promise was made in all sincerity, but Kate Fansler, who rather resented being ignored for too long, was putting up a certain amount of fuss. I had not published a novel about her since 1986, and that one was written before 1985; she was growing restless. To those who have never created a series detective this may sound a bit mad; to those who have, however, it will hardly raise an eyebrow. Simenon reported how Maigret would intercept him if too long ignored; likewise Katlc.