The Players Come Again

Writing as Amanda Cross, English professor Carolyn Heilbrun introduced her female professor sleuth in 1964, endowing Kate Fansler with a gift for urbane conversation, sophisticated taste, literary expertise and a mind for murder, thus inspiring other writers to create a slew of similarly feminine detectives But while female investigators, private eyes and amateur snoopers now proliferate, Cross remains queen of the American literary whodunit. Here, three childhood friends are intimately connected with the work of modernist writer Emmanuel Foxx and his enigmatic wife, Gabrielle. When Fansler is asked to write the biography of Gabrielle in order to bring out the true role of Foxx's ``muse,'' she engages in more than literary detection. A poignant memoir within the novel, attributed to one of the three friends, demonstrates Cross's felicitous ability to create another prose style--and to craft a story that will win her an even wider audience. This compelling novel is about motivation, rather than material motives, about the mystery of human character more than the details of a murder. BOMC and Mysterious Book Club alternates. (Oct.)