“Amanda Cross” is the pen name of Carolyn Gold Heilbrun (1926–2003), an American feminist author and Columbia University English professor who wrote a popular series of academic mystery novels. You can’t get more academic than James Joyce so this mystery mixes murder with the structure of one of Joyce’s best books. “Each chapter is cleverly named after a story from James Joyce’s Dubliners, and the plot weaves in literary puzzles, academic wit, and subtle nods to Joyce’s work.” 

Kate Falser, an English professor like her writer, goes to the Berkshires for the summer to sort through the literary correspondence of an American publisher and James Joyce.  But literary work is put on hold when Mary Bradford, an obnoxious and gossipy local farmer’s wife, is shot dead. The weapon belongs to the household, turning Kate’s guests and circle into prime suspects. 

If you’re in the mood for a clever mystery blended with literary clues, The James Joyce Murder (1967) provides an academic puzzle that will challenge you. GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Prologue
• Chapter 1: The Sisters
• Chapter 2: An Encounter
• Chapter 3: Araby
• Chapter 4: Eveline
• Chapter 5: After the Race
• Chapter 6: Two Gallants
• Chapter 7: The Boarding House
• Chapter 8: A Little Cloud
• Chapter 9: Counterparts
• Chapter 10: Clay
• Chapter 11: A Painful Case
• Chapter 12: Ivy Day in the Committee Room
• Chapter 13: A Mother
• Chapter 14: Grace
• Chapter 15: The Dead
• Epilogue