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Summary
Author Notes
Jane Langton was born Jane Gillson in Belmont, Massachusetts on December 30, 1922. She received a bachelor's degree in art history in 1944 and a master's degree in art history in 1945 from the University of Michigan. She received a second master's degree in art history from Radcliffe College in 1948. She studied at the Boston Museum School from 1958 to 1959.
Her writing career began with children's books. Her first book, The Majesty of Grace, was published in 1961. She illustrated several of her children's books. She wrote a young adult series entitled the Hall Family Chronicles. The fourth book in the series, The Fledgling, was a Newbery Honor book.
She also wrote an adult mystery series entitled the Homer Kelly mysteries. The fifth book in the series, Emily Dickinson Is Dead, received a Nero Wolfe Award and an Edgar Award. In 2017, she received the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award for the series. She died from complications of a respiratory condition on December 22, 2018 at the age of 95.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Unbridled egos. Ruthless ambition. Uncontrollable lust. Rage. Brutality. Murder. An evening with the NYPD? No, it's just the usual scholars assembling for the beginning of their academic year at England's stately Oxford University. Visiting Harvard professor Homer Kelly (here in his 12th appearance after The Shortest Day) is to lecture on American literature but instead finds himself embroiled in several perplexing mysteries at once: Has someone discovered the long lost zoological specimens from the original Darwin expedition? Who is trying to murder Helen Farfrae, dedicated assistant to distinguished Darwinian scholar Professor Dubchick? Was Helen's abusive husband's fall from museum scaffolding murder or accident? And who slit the throat of young Anglican priest Oliver Clare, scion of a distinguished family and lately besotted with Dubchick's feisty daughter? Eccentric, gregarious and not at all bashful, Homer is aided by his levelheaded and clear-eyed wife, Mary. Much of the droll and unpredictable activity takes place in the venerable city of Oxford and the Oxford University museum. Surrounded by ghosts and statues of past academics, embroiled in creationism vs. evolutionist dogma and dealing with monumental academic skullduggery, Homer, Mary and the Oxford police are at their best. And, at times, over the top. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Homer Kelly is nervous about his stint as a visiting fellow in American literature at Keble College, but he'd relax if he knew that the elevated Oxford body count will make him feel right at home. There's a night watchman killed in a mysterious fall from a college roof (what was Bobby Fenwick doing up there, anyway?); there's misfit mail-clerk Johnny Farfrae, who dies after a similar nasty fall outside his wife Helen's office; and there's the severed throat of Rev. Oliver Clare, a divinity student who seemed destined even before that to lose Freddy Dubchick to Hal Shaw, a just-married tutor in biology working under Helen's boss, Freddy's naturalist father, Prof. William Dubchick. It's not till the third killing, in fact, that Langton's whimsical, fitfully entertaining tale really takes off with a plot that binds Dubchick's researches to the dispute between those other twin eminences, Charles Darwin and his 19th- century contemporary, ferocious anti-Darwinist Bishop Arthur Clare, Oliver's great-great-great-great granduncle. Along the way, there'll be a large, stolen 1651 painting of a dodo, a reverse burglary in which some crafty felon sneaks dozens of crustaceans (in jars labeled ``Chutney,'' ``Peach Preserves,'' and ``Griskin of Pork'') into the Oxford Museum, and enough outrageous behavior to flabbergast the bemused detective--though ``of course,'' as Langton points out, ``the state of being flabbergasted was normal for Homer.'' Flickers of gently effective satire compete with kitchen- sink plotting, but still leave Homer's 12th case (The Shortest Day, 1995, etc.) below the level of his best. (66 of the author's trademark line drawings, not seen)
Booklist Review
Langton's latest Homer Kelly adventure makes an even dozen in this popular series. The imaginative plot, oddball but authentic characters, and delicious humor, plus the charming line drawings scattered throughout the book, are all vintage Langton. This time the setting is Oxford University, where Homer has been invited as a visiting professor. But not long after he arrives, a night watchman at the Oxford Museum dies, and the investigating constabulary suspects murder. Naturally, Homer's reputation as a distinguished amateur sleuth leads the police to ask for his help. Sifting through the evidence, Homer finds more than he bargained for: scholarly rivalries, student pranks, unrequited love, disappearing manuscripts, a case of missing crustaceans alleged to have belonged to Charles Darwin, and, eventually, more murder. Who else but Langton could write a mystery featuring dead dodos, Darwinism, and supposedly stuffy academics and make it so much fun? --Emily Melton
Library Journal Review
Homer Kelly and wife, Mary, take their wit and intelligence to Oxford. Academic intrigue leads to murder in the museum of natural history, however, and Homer investigates. Another enjoyable read from the author of The Shortest Day (LJ 10/1/95). (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
