Customer Reviews

Honest Doubt (Kate Fansler Novels)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I've enjoyed Kate Fansler and her detective work, so I jumped to buy this book, just out. Woefully disappointed. There is no depth of character, not in the narrator nor in Kate. There is no "sitting at the edge of your seat" (or bed) here. It's all tedium punctuated by long disquistions on being fat. Very definitely not up to par. Ironically, I had recently re-read some of Batya Gur's mysteries. In hers, there are echos of P.D. James'--with those wonderful multi-layered characters who are fascinating unto themselves and not one-dimensional, not boring. I hate to damn a writer that I've enjoyed over the years but this is simply NOT a compelling read. The writer was clearly tired as was her prose. Sorry to report the above, but look elsewhere for good mystery and high drama.

I was extremely disappointed in this book. Having read all of the previous mysteries written by Amanda Cross, I was looking forward to enjoying her literate and witty style, a thought-provoking plot and interesting character development. This book fails miserably in all three areas. The style is turgid, the plot is almost non-existent with a cop-out ending and the characters are one-dimensional (although I'm sure that Woody would say that she had more dimensions that that--I really did get weary of all the references to her size). I can only hope that the author will go back to creating a well-crafted mystery next time around. But I will first check with other reviewers before buying another book by Cross so that I'm not burned again by purchasing another such boring and poorly written myster.

As an avid mystery reader, I grabbed Amanda Cross' "Honest Doubt" hoping to find something literate and engaging. The Cover read 'A Kate Fansler Novel," whom I hoped to add to my list of must-read dectectives. What I found was Estelle "Woody" Woodhaven a fat female detective hired to solve the murder of a pretentious Professor of English Literature. Woody enlists Kate's help to solve the murder as she feels totally out of her league in Academia. While Woody's constant references to her size is annoying;it is her worship of Kate's intellect that eventually made this novel a real bore. One wonders how Woody made it through Law School. The characters are annoying and poorly drawn and the plot convoluted. I Would like to see Woody's Character in another novel sans Kate and with less reference to her size.

As soon as I found that another book by Amanda Cross was coming , I put my name on the library's request list and persued the bookstores for it. But when I started reading, it was so disappointing to find such a poorly written book.

The character Woody was drawn with a sledge hammer. As I read where she put her helmet or that she obsessed about her weight for the nth time, I was sadden that Cross's past skills in character development had disappeared. Where was her sophisticated and literate writing Style?

What happened to Amanda Cross?

I have been an avid reader of Cross's work, and so was bitterly disappointed by her most recent novel. She must have been out of ideas because she stole a famous Agatha Christie plot. It was obvious to me about a third of the way in. That Cross gives credit to Christie by actually having the two detectives watch the movie that was made from the novel may have assuaged her conscience, but it made me want my money back. The plot worked barely in Christie's exotic setting. . . in the English department of a small college worked it was completely lacking in believability.

As a long-time fan of Amanda Cross, I'm glad this isn't the first book of hers that I picked up. I liked the characters alright but I found the ending to be the most unsatisfactory of any book I've ever read.

I've not read Amanda Cross before, and if this is an indication of her work, it's probably a good thing. The character was kind of interesting, and with future books could be developed into one to look forward too. As I was reading it, I thought my biggest problem with the book would be it's slow-moving, rambling description of interviews with characters who started to run together. But by the time I got to the end, the bad ending dwarfed my earlier complaints. First, the "heroine" didn't figure out a darn thing--she had to be told "who did it". Which would be fine if the ending was explained better, there were some clues from the book that came together at the end. When stepping back and viewing the ending as a concept, it wasn't bad, but then the writing to get there was incredibly uninspired. I suspect that Amanda Cross must have written better books or she wouldn't be as popular as she is. Perhaps I'll read something else she's written just to see if this was a fluke. I would not encourage Amanda Cross fans or anyone for that matter (other than members of a collegiate English department, perhaps) to waste their time, money or anticipation on this book.

This was my first Amanda Cross, and my last. The main character in this book detective Woody is pretty much incompetent and continues to talk about her size, which starts to get old around page 30. I did not really care about who killed the professor, and pretty much found all of the characters in the book uninteresting. I couldn't wait to finish this slow story to move on to something I actually wanted to read.

I'm new to the Kate Fansler series having only read one previously, and I really enjoyed Honest Doubt. Although Woody seems to dwell just a little too much on her size and everyone else's, the description of small college politics is good, although a little extreme. I did find the incessant harping about the lack of tenured females a little trying. It is a valid issue, but presented badly. Overall, the mystery is good, the characters interesting, and I look forward to reading more novels with Woody as a central character.

I'm sorry, but "Honest Doubt" was just awful. The new protagonist/detective, Woody, lets Ms. Cross explore a couple of subjects first hand that wouldn't work with her "old" detective, Kate Fansler -- being fat, and the inequities faced by women academics. Having heard Professor Heilbrun speak on the latter topic, I know that she has a great deal of truly fascinating information on the subject, but none of it seems to have found its way into this book. And the fat thing just doesn't work. It is presented too simplistically.

In general, the voices of all the non-academics in the story ring false. At one point, an undergraduate is pinned down as to why he is even in college if he has no interest in his subjects. He says something about supposing a degree would help him to "get on." Maybe an Oxford undergrad would still say that, but no bored American youth would even know what it meant!

And I still don't buy Kate Fansler's St. Bernard. Kate is just too distant -- you can't be distant with a Saint!