The Theban Mysteries

by Amanda Cross

Book Overview

For a century, wealthy New York girls have been trained for the rigors of upper class life at the Theban, an exclusive private school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Kate Fansler is lured back to her alma mater to teach a seminar on Antigone. But a hostile note addressed to Kate, the uniform mistrustfulness of her six, bright students, and the Dobermans that patrol the building at night suggest trouble on the spot. As Kate leads her class through...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380450216
• ISBN13: 9780380450213
• Release Date: January 1979
• Publisher: Avon Books
• Length: 191 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.2" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

The Theban Mysteries

What I love about the Kate Fansler mysteries is their many literary references. I'd love to spend the cocktail hour with Kate and Reed, trying to keep up with the snappy dialogue. The Theban Mysteries is especially good due to its being set in a college seminar on Antigone. This lets Kate be her highbrow best. Many times a mystery series gets repetitive as the series goes on, with the author churning them out like a factory. But every book in this series by Amanda Cross is as good as the last. The only sad thing about reading her books is knowing Amanda Cross is dead and therefore we'll never get another one. If you like this series, though, you should try the Sarah Caudwell mysteries.

I loved it.

I loved this book because Kate Fransler is such a great character. Also, as an English teacher at a commnuity college, I love all her references to literature. This book is fun because the kids have interesting personalities. Antigone is a great play, and I enjoy the way this book keeps coming back to the play. I agree with another reviewer that some aspects of the plot are less than believable, but I read these books for light fun and don't mind an occassional far-fetched element.

Kate Fansler joins the faculty of an elite girls school

This is a little bit of a departure from the usual collegiate themed mystery. Kate is asked to teach a senior seminar on the Antigone(appropriate for a murder mystery) at her old school, the Theban. A young man is found unconscious and bleeding, having been frightened by the school's guard dogs, and shortly thereafter his mother is found dead under similar circumstances. This is very much like the other Fansler mysteries, although the setting is different. The mystery is difficult to figure out and this is faster reading than the usual Cross mystery. I enjoyed it even more than usual.

The Classics are with us!

A seminar on Antigone. "An ancient tragedy, a modern demise and a mystery to baffle the gods!" and as read in Antigone, "No, though a man be wise, 'tis no shame for him to learn many things, and to bend in season."