Customer Reviews

The Collected Stories

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4 star:		(1)
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These cozy mystery stories are a must read for lovers of literature, those familiar with academia, and those disillusioned with most media portrayals of women. Amanda Cross (aka the accomplished Carolyn Heilbrun) peppers her stories with humor and literary allusions, good-naturedly exposes tensions between successful women and men (as well as successful old women and young women), and subtly undercuts misogynistic, ageist stereotypes throughout her pleasant stories. Her stories are a fresh change from violent or aggressive murder mysteries. Instead they focus on the enigmatic quirks of life that an amateur detective might actually be called upon to (informally and without payment) investigate.

Many of the stories seek to resolve familial disruptions via fair-minded and calming methods, and for that reason seem the ultimate cozies. Nevertheless, at times the ideas are cold or provocative. For example, my favorite line is this one, describing why a clearly unlikeable misogynist might shoot the wrong old woman: "If women are all the same in the dark, older women are all the same in the light."

I really enjoyed this book. I recomend it to readers of all ages

I was told that Amanda Cross was a good mystery writer and looked forward to reading some of her works. After reading 4 of these short stories, I put the book down and will not look for any more of her works.

I tried to over look the excessive use of fractured compound sentences, but the bizarre resolution of the stories was more than I could bear.