Amanda Cross. Death in a Tenured Position (1981)

     Amanda Cross Death in a Tenured Position (1981) The victim, Janet Mandelbaum, called to a newly endowed chair in Harvard’s English Department, dies because of her opposition to feminism. This should make her the darling of the Eng. Dept. Professors, who are almost all opposed to the monstrous regiment of women, but bend, reluctantly, to the demands of the times. For this is a novel about the lethal effects of the feminist wars. Kate Fansler, professor English at a New York University (carefully disguised, but modelled on Columbia), is asked to help Janet acclimatise, and fails. This failure is one of the causes of Janet’s death. Kate realises this too late, just as she unravels the knotty mystery.
     Along the way, Cross provides her usual mix of fond and satirical takes on academia. That’s one of her book’s chief delights, at least for anyone with a nostalgia for that supremely irresponsible and therefore supremely useful life. For if humans did not value learning and art, they would have no reason to moil for pelf. I enjoyed the book, but it’s not a top-notch mystery, just a very good one. ***