The Puzzled Heart - A Kate Fansler Mystery

Zusatztext "Intelligent . . . Literate . . . Kate is right on the ball." --The New York Times Book Review "ENGROSSING." --Associated Press "A DELIGHT." --Los Angeles Times "ENTERTAINING . . . Rich in both wry comedy and fiendish plots . . . Kate Fansler is deservedly popular with readers! and her new case will not disappoint." --Baltimore Sun Informationen zum Autor Amanda Cross is the pseudonymous author of the bestselling Kate Fansler mysteries, of which The Puzzled Heart is the twelfth. 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, most recently, The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty. Klappentext 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. . . .One       KATE FANSLER’S arrival on Leslie Stewart’s doorstep was thoroughly uncharacteristic.   Leslie Stewart was, at the moment the doorbell rang, trying to persuade one grandson not to pull out the cat’s hair in handfuls and the other grandson, happily ensconced in a high chair, to put his applesauce to internal rather than external uses.   “Will you see to the door, Jane?” she called in what she hoped were plaintive rather than irritable tones. “I’m rather tied up here.”   And indeed, Leslie thought, I would far rather be literally tied up or in almost any other situation but this. Grandchildren she cherished, but only, it came to her with sudden clarity, at their more adorable moments and in anticipation of departure, either theirs or hers as the case might be. Today, unfortunately, the case was neither.   “Jane,” she called again. She could hear, then, a growl of acquiescence and Jane’s footsteps as she crossed the loft to the front door, whose bell had again sounded, this time with urgency.   Jane Berlin had long liked to point out that she had remained childless for good reason and had fallen in love with Leslie when she too seemed well past the possibility of childbearing. It was the likelihood of grandchildren that she had failed to take into account. Apparently, having passed one’s genes on to one generation, one felt impelled to encourage, even to assist, in the flowering of those genes into yet another generation. Jane felt, in a word, betrayed. Outraged was another word that might, without exaggeration, be employed. The strength of her feelings was in no way mitigated by Leslie’s assurance that she agreed with her, and that this particular occasion was unavoidable and not likely to be repeated.   Jane’s far-from-rapid progress was, toward the end, and at the bell’s second ring, hastened by the happy thought that perhaps this was the boys’ parents returning. She was almost smiling when she threw open the door.   Kate Fansler stood on the doorstep, looking so harassed that Jane did not even think to mention her disappointment in Kate’s failure to be the retriever of the children.   “Are you all right?” Jane asked, somewhat rhetorically, since Kate looked far from all right. “Leslie’s in the kitchen preventing cruelty to animals and swathed in baby food.” Concerne...

Product details

• Authors: Amanda Cross
• Publisher: Fawcett Book Group
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 26.12.1998
• EAN: 9780345418845
• ISBN: 978-0-345-41884-5
• No. of pages: 242
• Dimensions: 106 mm x 173 mm x 20 mm
• Series: Kate Fansler; Kate Fansler
• Subject: Fiction > Suspense > Crime fiction, thrillers, espionage