Redefining the Academic Mystery Genre

This book, In the Last Analysis, began in the traditional Dan Brown style, presenting key information at the beginning of the novel in a prologue. (For this reason, unlike “Gaudy Night,” I could tell this would be a mystery.) However, instead of presenting a murder at the beginning, Cross decides to introduce the reader to the key characters, their relationships and occupations. The main character Kate Fansler is an English professor. (Like in Gaudy Night, a female is the main character. Surely there must be some male leads in this genre…) Her friend Emanuel Bauer is a psychoanalyst whose office is located in his apartment, which is home to him, his wife Nicola, and their three boys.

After this introduction, Kate is visited by Captain Stern, a detective, and after an interrogation about her whereabouts and one of her students, he tells her that the student she recommended to her friend Emanuel has been murdered—stabbed in the back while lying on the couch in Emanuel’s office. This is a complete shock to Kate and she decides to take it upon herself to find the murderer in this matter because she knows that Emanuel couldn’t have murdered his patient (it’s bad for business and she’s knows him personally) and because she feels guilty about the girl’s death since she recommended her. However, Emanuel’s the police’s prime suspect because he has no alibi for the time the patient/student, Janet Harrison, was murdered with one of his kitchen knives (in his office) during their scheduled 11:00 session. Of course, Emanuel denies all accusations, claiming both his eleven and twelve o’clock patients cancelled (coincidence?), so he went for a brisk walk around the reservoir. For some reason, I believe him.

Already there are huge differences between this book and the last (Gaudy Night). First off, there is a murder in this book. Second, it doesn’t seem to fall into the academic mystery genre because the murder, and ultimately the plot so far, haven’t taken place in an academic setting. It has taken place in Emanuel’s apartment/office. The only thing academic about it is the fact that Kate’s a college professor and that there is a great deal of interrogation and analyzing of the evidence and the scenario. As a result, there aren’t a wide range of possible suspects like in an academic setting since there are significantly less people involved. Suspects include Kate (since she’s a close friend and knows the Bauers’ routine), Emanuel, his wife Nicola, the neighboring doctor (Dr. Michael Barrister), one of his patients, the apartment butler, or man X who knew Kate’s whereabouts and wanted her dead (Kate’s theory).

However, like in Gaudy Night, motive is unknown. A large part of this is due to the fact that nobody seems to know a lot about Janet Harrison—not even the police—and Emanuel isn’t speaking about their sessions because it’s against the psychoanalyst code. Plus, similar to Harriet, Kate takes it upon herself to solve the case.

This book seems to be moving a lot faster than Gaudy Night and I can say that I like this adrenaline rush. It keeps the reader interested. Kate attempts to get right to the point, interrogating both Emanuel and Nicola, and calling in an old friend for help. She’s eager to find the murderer as well as probably to solve the case like her beloved Lord Peter Wimsey whom she mentions only pages into novel, comparing his personality to the dry Captain Stern. It will be interesting to see Gaudy Night’s influence on this book, since Wimsey seems to be the quintessential detective…at least to Kate.