Readers of Amanda Cross's earlier books will know that Kate's own manner is thoroughly agreeable, her observations witty and her erudition lightly displayed. All the qualities that make her so engaging a heroine are still apparent—but somehow her detecting has become a little perfunctory [in A Death in the Faculty, published in the United States as Death in a Tenured Position]. "Not exactly a full roster of suspects, Kate sadly thought"; certainly this novel has neither the density of plot that distinguished The Question of Max … nor the scholarly ebullience that made, say, Poetic Justice … so entertaining. If, like Sayers's Gaudy Night,… A Death in the Faculty links its mystery with a topical question (interestingly, the same one: feminism, and the varieties of dogma it can accommodate), it is less satisfactory than the Sayers novel in its resolution and in the intricacy of its puzzle-making. Narrative delicacy and cogency, however: these remain undiminished.
Patricia Craig, "In the Men's Room," in The Times Literary Supplement (© Times Newspapers Ltd. (London) 1981; reproduced from The Times Literary Supplement by permission), No. 4083, July 3, 1981, p. 758.
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