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yetilibrary's review against another edition
3.0
My second Amanda Cross experience. The good: Kate Fansler remains a charming heroine, and Cross remains adept at sketching engaging characters and writing witty dialogue. I enjoy spending time in these books and I will read more of them.
The bad: the major mystery is only solvable by guessing, which is more or less what Kate Fansler does. Kate Fansler has what might gently be termed the Jessica Fletcher Advantage: she can get the people she suspects in a room and get them to confess, either by bluffing them, charming them, or threatening them (or doing all three). It was a cheesy ploy on "Murder, She Wrote," and in "The Theban Mysteries" it just stops the story cold. IT'S OVER, EVERYONE GO HOME, KATE FANSLER GUESSED CORRECTLY AND GOT PEOPLE TO CONFESS, OH WELL SO MUCH FOR ALL THE WORK AND INVESTIGATING EVERYONE DID.
So, yes, THAT annoyed me.
The weird: A motif is that "Antigone" is oddly relevant to their times (the height of the Vietnam War). It's clear that the themes they explore are also highly relevant to OUR times. I found that was true of the previous Fansler mystery as well. The more things change etc. etc., I guess.
The bad: the major mystery is only solvable by guessing, which is more or less what Kate Fansler does. Kate Fansler has what might gently be termed the Jessica Fletcher Advantage: she can get the people she suspects in a room and get them to confess, either by bluffing them, charming them, or threatening them (or doing all three). It was a cheesy ploy on "Murder, She Wrote," and in "The Theban Mysteries" it just stops the story cold. IT'S OVER, EVERYONE GO HOME, KATE FANSLER GUESSED CORRECTLY AND GOT PEOPLE TO CONFESS, OH WELL SO MUCH FOR ALL THE WORK AND INVESTIGATING EVERYONE DID.
So, yes, THAT annoyed me.
The weird: A motif is that "Antigone" is oddly relevant to their times (the height of the Vietnam War). It's clear that the themes they explore are also highly relevant to OUR times. I found that was true of the previous Fansler mystery as well. The more things change etc. etc., I guess.
judyward's review against another edition
3.0
This is the New York entry into the challenge of reading a mystery book set in each of the 50 states and Washington, D.C. I love books with an academic setting and Amanda Cross fits the bill with this fourth in the Kate Fansler series. Kate is an intellectual from the upper class who is a college professor in New York City. While on sabbatical, she agrees to return to her alma mater, Theban, a private girls school on Manhatten's upper East Side, to teach a seminar on Antigone. Set in the 1970s, the plot draws parallels between the draft and the war in Vietnam and Sophocles' play. Lots of fun dialogue and scads of literary references and allusions.
backlogbooks's review
3.0
This wasnt so much a mystery (and bot at all a suspense novel) as it was a meditation/college lecture on the vietnam war, generational gaps, and the relevance of antigone to modern life. It includes approximately 10 quotes from literature (antigone and others) per page, and the murder doesn’t happen until nearly halfway through the 210 page book.
But I did still enjoy it, because of the writing style. Like, honestly, it felt like a play you would see at a small local theater, with only two sets, like five actors (though there are more than five characters in the book), and twenty people in the audience. I got bored toward the end (and was never all too interested in the mystery) but for most of the book there was something engaging about the way the characters spoke, like they were aware they were in a book and performing to the reader. Im aware these are coming out like backhanded compliments, but this was a very different experience from the mysteries/thrillers i usually read, and i want to reflect that lol
But I did still enjoy it, because of the writing style. Like, honestly, it felt like a play you would see at a small local theater, with only two sets, like five actors (though there are more than five characters in the book), and twenty people in the audience. I got bored toward the end (and was never all too interested in the mystery) but for most of the book there was something engaging about the way the characters spoke, like they were aware they were in a book and performing to the reader. Im aware these are coming out like backhanded compliments, but this was a very different experience from the mysteries/thrillers i usually read, and i want to reflect that lol
writerlibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
Kate Fansler's mystery are always like intricate lace work. Full of winks at authors and literary work. Here, The Theban is an all girls private school where the senior are studying Antigone for the winter semester. Set in the early 70's, we have a parallel between the Vietnam war, the draft and the generation gap and Sophocles's play about filial loyalty, civil desobeisance and a head strong, doomed young woman. What I like about Amanda Cross's novels is the atmosphere, the frills around the plot, the dialogs. This one doesn't disappoint. Made me want to pick your copy of Sophocles I have around.
gglazer's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting little mystery about a teacher-turned-detective who goes back to lead a seminar on Antigone at her old New York prep school, sort of in the Jessica Fletcher tradition but with a bit more edge. The mystery was a little flat, and I didn't even remotely care whodunit, but I liked the droll, self-aware protagonist.
The discussion of the Vietnam War in the context of Antigone was also nicely drawn, and helped me gain a bit of perspective of just how divisive the war was even for wealthy, privileged people on opposite sides of the generation gap (and those in the middle, like Fansler herself).
I didn't realize this book was the third in the series when I picked it up; I might go back for the first two.
The discussion of the Vietnam War in the context of Antigone was also nicely drawn, and helped me gain a bit of perspective of just how divisive the war was even for wealthy, privileged people on opposite sides of the generation gap (and those in the middle, like Fansler herself).
I didn't realize this book was the third in the series when I picked it up; I might go back for the first two.
meeners's review
4.0
i've decided that amanda cross must be my patron saint. there's hardly any mystery in this book, but who cares! i'd be happy if this entire book was just kate fansler meditating wisely and compassionately on life, the universe, and everything (which basically it is). i'm reminded actually of a quote from the first book: "She had learned as a college teacher that if one simplified what one wished to say, one falsified it. It was possible only to say what one meant, as clearly as possible." yes indeed!
lkwhitehead's review
4.0
A surprisingly quick read - begun and finished in one evening. First published in 1971, the book is the fourth (apparently) in a feminist detective series featuring academic Kate Fansler. This is the first I’ve read, so it took a few pages to understand the set up. Kate is university literature professor, but in this book is on sabbatical for a semester in order to write a book on the Victorians. Instead, she’s drafted by her Alma mater, an all girls day school in NYC called the Theban, to teach a senior seminar on the Greek play Antigone. It is at the school that Kate meets with an unexplained death....
1971 New York City is an interested change of pace for me. The book is truly a time capsule of the social and political change taking place. Several plot points hinge on draft dodging, and there is continued debate between multiple characters about the liberal hippies and youth of today versus the conservative, traditional, and patriotic older generation.
I’d be interested in reading another in the series.
1971 New York City is an interested change of pace for me. The book is truly a time capsule of the social and political change taking place. Several plot points hinge on draft dodging, and there is continued debate between multiple characters about the liberal hippies and youth of today versus the conservative, traditional, and patriotic older generation.
I’d be interested in reading another in the series.
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