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Summary
Summary
She's back! After more than two decades, Judith Singer, the heroine of Compromising Positions, returns in a rollicking new novel sure to delight Susan Isaacs's millions of readers
Some twenty years after COMPROMISING POSITIONS, Judith Singer again gets involved in murder and mayhem when, on an "...unseasonably warm Halloween night, fair-haired and dimpled Courtney Logan, age thirty-four, magna cum laude graduate of Princeton, erstwhile investment banker at Patton Giddings, wife of darkly handsome Greg, mother of five-year-old Travis, canner of spiced pears, collector of vintage petit point, and ex-president of Citizens for a More Beautiful Shorehaven vanished from Long Island into thin air."
Judith's life has changed. She now has her doctorate in history. Half her "working hours are spent at the Shorehaven Public Library as head of its oral history project. (The other half are spent at St. Elizabeth's College, mostly squandered in history department shriek-fests. I am an adjunct professor at this alleged institution of higher learning, a formerly all-female, formerly nun-run, formerly first-rate school across the county border in the New York City borough of Queens. )" She is also a widow. Her husband Bob, "the king of crudités, flat of belly and firm of thigh, a man given to barely suppressed sighs of disappointment whenever he saw me accepting a dessert menu from a waiter (which, okay, I admit I never declined), died at age fifty-five, one half-day after triumphantly finishing the New York City Marathon in four hours and twelve minutes." And although twenty years have passed without seeing him, she still cannot get her former lover, Nelson Sharpe of the Nassau County Police Department, out of her system.
Naturally, all eyes turn toward Courtney's husband, Greg Logan, son of Long Island mobster Philip "Fat Phil" Lowenstein. But since there is no body, there is no arrest. Then in the not-so-merry month of May, Judith comes home from work, turns on the radio, and hears Mack Dooley, the Logan's pool man telling WCBS radio: "Like, this morning, about eleven, I'm taking off the Logan's pool cover with this kid who works for me-you know, pump it out, acid-wash it, get it ready, and-" The reporter did attempt a question, but Dooley kept going. "So listen. The cover's fine, tied down real tight like I left it in the middle of September when I closed them up. The kid and I are kind of rolling it back and I see something. I say, Holy-You know how big raccoons can get? Except for the life of me I can't figure out how even a raccoon could work its way under that cover. Well, that second I see you know, it's a body! Jeez. Believe it or not, I'm still shaking. " Now it's officially homicide. And Judith comes alive!
She offers her services to the police chief 's suspect, Greg Logan, but he shows her the door, thinking her just another neighborhood nut. However, one night, as she's unpacking groceries, she gets a surprise visit from Fat Phil...
Author Notes
Susan Isaacs was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 7, 1943. She graduated from Queens College and began her literary career as an administrative assistant at Seventeen magazine. Freelance writing and writing political speeches for Long Island politicians filled her spare time while she was home raising her children in the 1970s. Her first novel, Compromising Positions, was published in 1978 and adapted into a movie of the same title that starred Susan Sarandon and Raul Julia. Her other novels include Almost Paradise, Magic Hour, After All These Years, and Lily White. She wrote and co-produced the movie Hello Again which starred Shelley Long, Gabriel Byrne, and Judith Ivey. Her novel, Shining Through, was adapted into a movie starring Michael Douglas, Melanie Griffith and Liam Neeson.
She covered the 2000 presidential campaign for Newsday. She also reviewed books for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Newsday. She has won numerous awards including the Writers for Writers Award, the Marymount Manhattan Writing Center Award, and the John Steinbeck Award.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The 20 years between Isaac's bestselling Compromising Positions and this second book to feature amateur sleuth Judith Singer have not affected the author's talent for snappy dialogue and astringent assessments of cant and pretension. In those two decades, Judith has raised two children, lost her husband, achieved a doctorate in history and is teaching (without much satisfaction) at a local college. When her Long Island neighbor, ex-investment banker and perfect mom Courtney Logan, goes missing, Judith become curious; and when Courtney turns up dead, and the husband is accused, she becomes downright obsessed. Greg Logan, it turns out, is the son of notorious gangster Fancy Phil Lowenstein, who arrives on Judith's doorstep with an offer to hire her to help his son. Naturally, her former lover, Lt. Nelson Sharp of the Nassau County Police Department, admonishes Judith to mind her own business, but she pursues her hunch that brilliant and beautiful Courtney seemed to be missing a certain "something" that no one could put a finger on. Judith suspects the key to the crime lies in the victim's character. How right she is! However, the real trouble with Courtney is that she's not very interesting, even at her worst, and Judith's investigation, despite several clever twists, goes on too long, as does the murderer's bizarre confession. But an upbeat ending will satisfy readers, and it suggests that it won't be 20 years before we encounter Judith Singer again. Agent, Owen Laster. (Sept.) Forecast: The major book clubs see big sales for this title: it's a main selection for BOMC and Mystery Guild, and an alternate for Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club. A 10-city author tour and Isaac's witty ripostes on talk shows should whip up interest. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
Guess who's back? Judith Singer of Isaacs's best-selling Compromising Positions. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.