The brilliant debut that's sold over a million copies-now in trade paperback for the first time!
Rediscover the "wonderfully funny, deliciously mean" (New York Times) novel that launched Susan Isaacs' New York Times bestselling career-and introduced Long Island housewife Judith Singer, her most beloved character. Judith is smart and funny, with a gorgeous husband and wonderful kids. She's also incredibly bored, having put her Ph.D. plans on hold for a life of housekeeping and nose-wiping. So when a local dentist is found murdered, and the police suspect her neighbor, that's all the excuse Judith needs to jump in and begin her own investigation. It seems the deceased periodontist was quite the Don Juan of the PTA, with a habit of taking incriminating photos. In between school runs and making dinner, Judith is drawn deeper into the case-and closer to the sexy police detective in charge.
"Wonderfully funny, deliciously mean." -- New York Times
"Clever, deft...and very funny." -- Washington Post
"Wickedly subversive wit...Great fun." -- Cosmopolitan--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Susan Isaacs is the author of ten New York Times bestsellers, including Shining Through; Lily White; Red, White, and Blue; and Any Place I Hang My Hat.
AFiction done well and done with a difference...A sophisticated storyteller, with a wry view of the world.@ - Washington Post
AJane Austen brought up to date...Highly amusing.@ - Atlantic Monthly
ASusan Isaacs is a witty, wry observer of the contemporary scene.@ - New York Times Book Review
ASardonic humor and dead-on commentary.@ - Houston Chronicle
ASusan Isaacs knows the art of dialogue the way J.S. Bach knew the art of the fugue.@ - Seattle Times
Blockbuster writers tend to be no more than terrific storytellers. Susan Isaacs=s talents go far beyond that. She is a witty, insightful, and elegant writer.@ - Mademoiselle
AI can think of no other novelist--popular or highbrow--who consistently celebrates female gutsiness, brains and sexuality. She=s Jane Austen with a schmear.@ Maureen Corrigan- National Public Radio Fresh Air
AWho....., is our best popular novelist? The nominee for this quarter is Susan Isaacs....[She] is a comic realist, an astute chronicler of contemporary life in the tradition of....Anthony Trollope.@ - Sun Sentinel
Susan's biography
Susan Isaacs, novelist, essayist and screenwriter, was born in Brooklyn and educated at Queens College. She worked as an editorial assistant at Seventeen magazine writing everything from book reviews to advice to the lovelorn. In 1968, Susan married Elkan Abramowitz, then a federal prosecutor. She became a senior editor but left Seventeen in 1970 to stay home with her newborn son, Andrew. Three years later, she gave birth to Elizabeth. During this time she freelanced, writing political speeches as well as magazine articles.
In the mid-seventies, Susan got the urge to write a novel. A year later she began Compromising Positions, a whodunit set on suburban Long Island. It was published in. Her second novel, Close Relations, a love story set against a background of ethnic, sexual and New York Democratic politics (thus a comedy), was published in. Her third, Almost Paradise, was published in 1984. All of Susan's novels have been New York Times bestsellers. Her fiction has been translated into thirty languages.
In 1985, she wrote the screenplay for Paramount's Compromising Positions, which starred Susan Sarandon and Raul Julia. She also wrote and co-produced Disney's Hello Again. The 1987 comedy starred Shelley Long and Gabriel Byrne.
Her fourth novel, Shining Through, set during World War II, was published in 1988. The film adaptation starred Michael Douglas and Melanie Griffith. Then came Magic Hour January 1991, After All These Years in 1993. Lily White in 1996 and Red, White and Blue in 1998. In 1999, Susan came out with her first work of nonfiction, Brave Dames and Wimpettes: What Women Are Really Doing on Page and Screen. During 2000, she wrote a series of columns on the presidential campaign for Newsday. Long Time No See, a sequel to Compromising Positions, came out in September 2001. Anyplace I Hang My Hat, was published in 2004. Past Perfect is her eleventh novel.
Susan Isaacs is a recipient of the Writers for Writers Award and the John Steinbeck Award. She serves as chairman of the board of Poets & Writers and is a past president of Mystery Writers of America. She is also a member of the National Book Critics Circle, The Creative Coalition, PEN, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the International Association of Crime Writers, and the Adams Round Table. Besides writing innumerable book reviews, Susan has also written about politics, film and First Amendment issues. She lives on Long Island with her husband.
Susan Isaacs has written a sequel to this book, so I decided to reread it before reading the sequel. It is better than I remembered. Judith Singer is a frustrated mommy/wife. She has gone from a promising academic future to housecleaning and nosewiping. Her husband is a workaholic at a PR firm, and seems to care little about anyone other than himself. Judith reads about the murder of a dentist. She knew him, having seen him once for a gum problem, and is intrigued by the mystery. She starts to investigate on her own and eventually hooks up with Lt. Sharpe the lead investigator. They solve the murder and have a brief affair.
This is an interesting look at suburbia in the late 70's. Most of the characters are upper middle class housewives with feminist leanings. Their struggles with their lot in life add alot to the story. The mystery was good also. This book was much better than I remembered.
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Judith Singer is interested when she learns the local periodontist has been murdered. Her interest turns into a need to know when she learns he was also the local Lothario, sleeping with half the women she knows and having propositioned the other half. It's the most exciting thing to have happened in her boring suburbanite life in years. Against her rigidly correct husband's vocal disapproval, she does some sleuthing among her friends and neighbors. This leads to a nasty threat against her by, she believes, the murderer. Enter a police detective, who needs the information she has and is definitely attracted to Judith as a person on all levels, mind, body and spirit. As, together, they gather the clues to make their case, Judith realizes a lot about herself and the life she's been leading.
I really enjoyed the writing here. It was easy to identify with the characters, and Isaacs has painted a true picture of that type of suburban living. At the same time, she weaves an elegant mystery with a wealth of detail. I'd recommend this for anyone mystery lover.
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I bought this book after listening to its sequel, "Long Time, No See" on tape on my daily commute to work. Like its sequel, "Compromising Positions" centers around the life and love interests of Judith Singer. In this book, Judith is in her mid-thirties, a bored housewife with a charming house and less-than-charming dud of a husband. Though the plot of this novel is Judith's involvement in a homicide investigation, I found that the real story was in Judith's marital dilemma. What do you do when you are a bright educated young woman who loves her children but longs for a career and adult companionship? What do you do when your husband works long hours, fails to provide you with the companionship you seek, tells you you've gotten fat, and treats you like the maid? In Judith's case, you have an affair with the lieutenant in charge of the murder investigation.
Judith's investigation into Dr. Bruce Fleckstein's murder is cleverly written and filled with twists and turns. It was interesting, but not the best part of this wonderful story. I appreceiated the author's humor, and her wonderful characterization of Judith, her self-righteous husband Bob, her wickedly clever best friend Nancy Miller, and her law and order lover, Nelson Sharpe. This book left me wanting more. I identified with Judith immensely despite the fact that I do not yet have children and I work outside the home. Read this book for its deft humor, clever mystery and immensely likeable heroine.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
As they would murmur at his funeral, Dr. M. Bruce Fleckstein was one of the finest periodontists on Long Island. Read the first pageKey Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mary Alice, Bruce Fleckstein, Marilyn Tuccio, Norma Fleckstein, Dicky Dunck, Brenda Dunck, Judith Singer, Lieutenant Sharpe, Lorna Lewis, Claymore Katz, New York, Long Island, Little Cupcake, Don Juan, Fay Jacobs, Nelson Sharpe, Scotty Hughes, Grand Jury, Singer Associates, Fifth Avenue, Laura Gordon-Jaffee, Mary Jeanne, Valentine's Day, Ginger Wick, Helen Fields
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