Midlife Can Be Murder: A Bel Barrett Mystery [Mass Market Paperback]

Jane Isenberg (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bel Barrett Mysteries (Avon Books) | Publication Date: October 2, 2001

Between mood swings and hot flushes, fifty-something New Jersey community college professor Bel Barrett solves another prickly homicide.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jane Isenberg taught English to urban community college students for close to thirty years. She has been writing mysteries ever since she experienced her first hot flash. Her copies of Modern Maturity are delivered to her new home in Amherst, Massachusetts, that she shares with her husband Phil Thompkins.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Avon (October 2, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380818868
• ISBN-13: 978-0380818860
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,968,735 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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A multi-layer mysery, October 1, 2001

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Midlife Can Be Murder: A Bel Barrett Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

Hoboken, New Jersey may not be the center of the universe but there are enough activities going on to keep Bel Barrett busy twenty-four hours a day. She's a full time English professor at the local community college and is only a semester away from getting her Ph.D. In her spare moments she works on her relationship with her significant other. If that isn't enough, Bel decides to get in touch with her Jewish heritage by attending classes that will lead up to her Adult Bat Mitzvah.

In the Hebrew class is her former student Ashley who begs her to help find out whether her friend's death was an accident or a murder as she rally suspects. Unable to say no, Bel enlists the help of her friends who have worked with her on previous murder investigations. Together they launch an operation that takes a lot of energy and nearly costs Bel all that she holds dear.

The fifty something-menopausal heroine is drawn very true to life and is so noble and charming she has the audience rooting for her all the way. The secondary cast is just as well drawn as the star. The characters make MIDLIFE CAN BE MURDER feels more like a multi dimensional reading experience. Jane Isenberg has crafted a well-written mystery with enough red herrings to keep the best puzzle solver stumped.

Harriet Klausner

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read, December 29, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Midlife Can Be Murder: A Bel Barrett Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

If you've been nervous about flying, here's what I recommend: buy a copy of Jane Isenberg's new mystery "Midlife Can be Murder," start reading when you fasten your seat belt, and look up when you come to the end. You've landed. This was the extremely pleasant way I spent my last plane trip.
As Isenberg fans already know, Bel Barrett, our sleuth, is very witty. In addition, embedded in this mystery are entertaining riffs, including one on a Biblical story I'm sure you will never see the same way again, and another on the rise and fall of the Dot Com lifestyle (you'll have to read the book to catch my pun.)
Underlying the fun and suspense in all Isenberg books is some serious social commentary. Bel's struggling students (in her other life Bel is a Professor of English at a local Community College) are always an important part of the plot, as are her adult children. I found all their adventures touching and very real.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner in a Super Series, January 8, 2002

By 

Mystery Reader (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Midlife Can Be Murder: A Bel Barrett Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

Bel is back! In her latest adventure she's climbing the walls to try to find the killer. It was hard to picture fifty-something Bel and her cronies infiltrating the twenty-something Dot.com world, but Ms. Isenberg came up with a humorous solution.

I loved this book on many levels. On the surface it is a great comfort read full of warmth and humor. Next, it educates the reader on a variety of subjects. And finally like any good tale, there's a wonderful moral to the story.

Isenberg gets better with every book. Don't miss this one.