Mood Swings to Murder: A Bel Barrett Mystery [Mass Market Paperback]

Jane Isenberg (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bel Barrett Mysteries (Avon Books) | Publication Date: December 5, 2000

Dead Ringer for a Dead Singer

Fifty-something New Jersey community college professor Bel Barret has had enough "changes of life" lately to last her a lifetime. Her daughter has cheerfully announced her pregnancy and her impending marriage in a single e-mail. Her son has come back home to find himself, but all he's found so far is the TV remote. Even a romantic stroll covering the Hoboken waterfront with live-in love Sol can do nothing to stabilize Bel's menopausal mood swings--especially when they stumble across the corpse of a stranger in the night who turns out to be...Frank Sinatra?

Actually, the bogus Blue Eyes was one Louie Palumbo, a sorry imitation of the late local icon. And since Louie had been dating and two-timing one of Bel's favorite students, the unfortunate co-ed is now the prime suspect in Palumbo's slaying. Bel's determined to go all the way to rout out the real killer. But that means plunging estrogen patch-first into the strange world of obsessive Sinatra worship--a move that could prove to be something stupid...maybe even fatal!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Bel Barrett is Evanovich's Stephanie Plum twenty-five years later--sassy and brassy." -- --Baldwin City Ledger

"The gifted Jane Isenberg writes with wit and compassion about life transitions that range from menopause to murder." -- --Susan Conant, author of the Barker Street Regulars mysteries

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: 256 pages
• Publisher: Avon (December 5, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380802821
• ISBN-13: 978-0380802821
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,581,415 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 What a Fun Treat for Mid-Life Fans of Sinatra & Sleuthing!, April 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Mood Swings to Murder: A Bel Barrett Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is a total kick to read! It's clever and funny, touching on everything from the dubious joys of planning a transcontinental wedding and the politics of community college life to the taste of fresh zeppoles at the Feast of St. Anne and the curiosities of celebrity impersonation--all wrapped in a satisfying murder mystery. And of course Bel Barrett once again shows us the humorous side of menopause, proving that "off the pill" doesn't mean "over the hill".

Bel and her sharp-eyed, smart-mouth pals Betty and Illuminada don't miss a trick--or a quip--on their way to finding out who did in the Sinatra wannabe. Even Bel's Mom and her octogenarian buddies get into the act, illuminating other wry and warming aspects of getting older while staying young at heart.

This is the third in this delightful series, and author Isenberg grows stronger with each one. Her literate, graceful writing style is a pleasure in itself, but mystery fans will find enough clues, suspects and plot twists to keep them turning pages til the wee hours of the morning. This is just the book to savor while listening to Frank sing "That's Life", "All of Me" or "It Was a Very Good Year". Don't miss "Mood Swings to Murder". It's smooth, sophisticated and sassy--just like Ol' Blue Eyes!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get out your M & M's!, August 14, 2001

By 

Fran (Plano, Texas USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mood Swings to Murder: A Bel Barrett Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

Our heroine, Bel, is addicted to M & M's. After all, it's a convenient way of eating chocolate without the mess. She needs a "fix" especially when she's involved in a stressful situation. There's plenty of those in this book and for those of us who could really empathize with the character, there are lots of M & M moments. Ms. Isenberg uses a lot of interesting devices to move the plot along. Most of the chapters start with an e-mail or letter to or from Bel. This lets you in on what's going on without hitting you over the head with it. I like it!

Teacher Bel has a lot of stuff going on in her life. I would have liked a little more about her relationship with Sol. It seems to be relegated to the back burner in this book. This is a character-driven book and the author has created some great characters--most of which would be interesting to meet. The mystery part is a little flimsy but, that can be forgiven because it's fun just reading what Bel and her cohorts are going to do next. I read this book on the plane from Vegas to Dallas and I didn't really mind that the flight was about a half-hour late because I was really into the book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great look at the mature woman in a mystery, December 5, 2000

By 

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

This review is from: Mood Swings to Murder: A Bel Barrett Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

Bel Barrett is not your typical menopausal Jewish resident of Hoboken, New Jersey. Her daughter attends an Oregon college, sends an E-mail informing Bel that she is pregnant and plans to marry her significant other. Bel's son, recently returned from Israel after a failed romance, is a couch potato living on Fruit Loops and needing surgery to remove the TV remote form his hand. Bel's saving grace is her beloved Sol, whose only flaw in her mind is his reluctance for her to investigate homicides.

While taking a stroll together, Sol and Bel find the body of a young Frank Sinatra look-alike. The deceased is Louie Palumbo, a Sinatra impersonator, who happened to be dating one of Bel's students. The pupil is a suspect, but Bel believes she is innocent. Bel decides to prove it by searching for the real killer, not yet knowing the danger she places herself in by a person relishing anonymity.

MOOD SWINGS TO MURDER demystifies menopause as the charming lead character does everything she did during pre-menopause. Much of Bel's tsuras come from her children (sound familiar) and not her change of life. The mystery is fined tuned by building on incident after incident until Bel is in danger from a killer whose identity she keeps stepping close to uncovering. The secondary characters especially those seen through e-mail only, provide a deft touch to the plot as well as insight into Bel's "mood swings." Fans of ethnic amateur sleuth tales will want Jane Isenberg to provide more stories starring Bel and her brood.

Harriet Klausner