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Hot on the Trail
 
 
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Hot on the Trail [Mass Market Paperback]

Jane Isenberg (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Book Description

October 26, 2004

The seventh delightful mystery starring community college professor Bel Barret, the sleuth that the Baldwin City Ledger calls, "Evanovich's Stephanie Plum twenty–five years later."

Fifty–something community college professor and amateur sleuth Bel Barrett is at it again. When Dom Tomaselli, a student from her memoir–writing class for senior citizens, shows up dead, she agrees to investigate whether his fall from a rooftop was an accident––or murder. But with her aged mother so depressed that she can't even make her weekly trips to Atlantic City, and with her wedding to her boyfriend Sal coming up, she hardly has time for anything, let alone sleuthing. So with the help of Dom's daughter Flora, Bel determines that Dom's inveterate gambler brother–in–law, who owed him money, is the primary suspect. But could an extortion plot and a long–ago arson case also be central to the old man's demise? With the help of her best pals from the community college, Bel weaves together the different strands of one of the most baffling cases she's ever seen...and discovers that the history of her beloved Hoboken is far more sordid than she'd ever imagined.


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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Isenberg's latest Bel Barrett mystery glows with heart, humor and hot flashes. One winter night, elderly pigeon fancier Dominic Tomaselli falls off a Hoboken roof and dies of exposure. His daughter suspects foul play and calls in Professor Bel Barrett, who teaches the senior memoir class Dominic attended. An inveterate sleuth, Bel welcomes distraction from the chagrins of menopause and the challenge of planning a wedding (to longtime live-in love Sol) that will accommodate her army of friends and relatives without breaking the bank. Drawing on the class's memoirs and the help of her staunch female pals, Bel slowly untangles the truth about Dom's death—and gets happily wed as well. Her investigation is low-key at best (strategy: chat with suspects and sources constantly, preferably over snacks), but the book's sharp-eyed energy more than compensates for the mystery's mildness. Beautifully drawn, Bel tackles everything from meddlesome kids to stress incontinence with zesty honesty. Thoughtful references to the human cost of urban gentrification, the complexities of elder care and the lingering aftermath of 9/11 anchor her playful ruminations; underneath its comedy, the book is a surprisingly nuanced look at the way individual lives and communities survive difficult transitions.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Bel Barrett is an absolute delight.” (Romantic Times BOOKclub )

“Funny, fast-moving.” (Seattle Times )

“Glows with heart, humor and hot flashes.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review) )

Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Avon (October 26, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060577517
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060577513
  • Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,433,748 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I grew up in Passaic, New Jersey, married, moved to Connecticut, and, in 1962 began a teaching career that lasted forty years. The first seven were the hardest and moved me to write a memoir about my experiences teaching high school English in New Haven. Titled GOING BY THE BOOK, it won the James N. Britten Award for Inquiry in English Language Arts from the National Council of Teachers of English in 1996. My next thirty-three years teaching community college students in Connecticut and then New Jersey and my first hot flash drove me to write THE "M" WORD. A comic mystery, it features a menopausal community college English prof as amateur sleuth and is the first of eight novels and a shorter anthologized work that make up The Bel Barrett Mystery Series. HOT WIRED, the last novel in the series was published in 2005 by which time I had retired from teaching and moved to the Puget Sound area. I looked to my new surroundings for inspiration and soon began work on a historical mystery set in Seattle's Jewish community during the Gold Rush and in 1965.

 

Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Guaranteed Enjoyment, January 2, 2005
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This review is from: Hot on the Trail (Mass Market Paperback)
Jane Isenberg's newest Bel Barrett mystery "Hot on the Trail" is a page-turner that provides both suspense and laughs. Our witty sleuth is so realistic she feels like an old friend. Many of the situations Bel finds herself in will be very familiar to women over 50, which makes them even more interesting and funny. Just don't start this book when you have a lot of work to do.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A perfect plane book, October 17, 2005
By 
This review is from: Hot on the Trail (Mass Market Paperback)
Hot on the Trail is an upbeat, fun read that brings me back to Hoboken,all those pigeons, two dead bodies, and that special brand of NJ politics! Finally, Bel and Sol get married and what a neat surprise the wedding is. Take this book on your next flight and enjoy!
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars charming romantic amateur sleuth mystery, October 27, 2004
This review is from: Hot on the Trail (Mass Market Paperback)
Tenured Professor Bel Barrett carries a full load of classes at the River Edge Community College in Jersey City, but she takes on even more work when she intervenes to teach a memoir writing class at the Senior Center. Her live-in-lover Sol wants her to set a wedding date and start making plans but Bel finds herself putting him off because the thought of planning a wedding exhausts her. As a post-menopause woman, Bel has stopped using the estrogen potion and has trouble maintaining bladder control.

While she deals with all these demands, a student in her class Flora Tomaselli tells Bel that fellow student Dom is dead. He went up to the roof in his pajamas, fell down, and froze to death. Flora also thinks her father was murdered by her uncle Emilio who owed him a large sum of money and wants Bel to prove it. Bel who always comes alive during criminal investigations agrees but Emilio has an airtight alibi and there are suspects closer to home.

Bel Barrett does for Hoboken what Stephanie Plum does for Trenton. This is an upbeat amateur sleuth tale in which the major characters are in their fifties. Jane Isenberg makes it clear that life does not stop once a person reaches the half century mark; it just gets better. If the heroine is any example that is certainty true because she has a lust for life and an appreciation of it that younger people don't have. HOT ON THE TRAIL is a charming romantic amateur sleuth mystery.

Harriet Klausner
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
I'm so upset about Papa. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
pigeon club, roof hatch
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sam Simon, Uncle Emilio, Father Santos, Jersey City, Hoboken Racing Pigeon Club, Dominic Tomaselli, Dom Tomaselli, Leo Tomaselli, Dino Sorrentino, New Jersey, Jane Isenberg, Ocean Grove, Senior Center, New York, Professor Barrett, Gamblers Anonymous, Jonah Bechstein, Flora Tomaselli, Frank Sinatra, Best Realty, Louie Palumbo, Miz Ramsey, Mood Swings, Odd Couple, Preserve the Waterfront
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