Past Perfect (Center Point Platinum Mystery (Large Print)) [LARGE PRINT] (Hardcover)

by Susan Isaacs (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Isaacs's 11th novel has fewer sparks flying than nets dragging, but most fans won't mind a bit, given the amount of outside-the-bedroom adventure. Despite reinventing herself as the author of the novel Spy Guys and the creator of the resultant TV show, Katie Schottland remains wounded by her still-unexplained firing from the CIA, where she wrote intelligence briefs as the Cold War ended, 13 years earlier. When she gets a distress call from an old co-worker, Lisa Golding, who subsequently disappears, Katie plunges back into the notes she smuggled out of the office. She seeks help from an old flame and another ex-agent (now a log-cabin recluse) who helps her trace three of Lisa's former charges at the CIA, East German asylum seekers transported to America and given new names. When two of them turn up dead within weeks of each other, Katie decides to give chase to locate the third before the woman becomes the next casualty. And she still hopes she'll coerce her ex-employer to give up the truth about her termination. The operations stuff is well-done throughout. Katie's relationship with her sweet vet husband adds little, but TV show–based scenes are diverting, and her fixation on her last job is sharply funny and true-to-life. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
By turns sassy and serious, Isaacs's best-selling novels (including Any Place I Hang My Hat, 2004) offer variations on a theme: "What's a nice Jewish girl doing in a predicament like this?" In the opening pages of her latest offering, former CIA analyst Katie Schottland receives a call from Lisa Golding, an old colleague who desperately needs her help. Katie, who was inexplicably fired from the agency some 15 years before, has since turned her experiences to profit, penning a successful cable-TV show based on her novel, Spy Games. But she remains clueless about the circumstances surrounding her termination. Lisa, it seems, knows all the devastating details and offers to offer them up in exchange for Katie's assistance. But can Katie, now ensconced in upper Manhattan, with a nice (if somewhat milquetoasty) husband and a 10-year-old son, leave behind her safe, comfortable life long enough to learn the truth? Past Perfect has cliched prose and a plot that pushes the limits of believability (skeptical readers may wonder how the scattered Katie ever got a CIA post in the first place). But Isaacs, veteran novelist and screenwriter with a sterling track record, can be counted on to ring cash registers, and if this isn't her best effort, it does offer a cast of reasonably engaging characters headed by Katie, a woman determined--once and for all--to make peace with her past. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 430 pages
• Publisher: Center Point Large Print (April 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585479500
• ISBN-13: 978-1585479504
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,799,938 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Yawn!!!, March 4, 2007

By	N. Gargano "nokegchris" (Waynesville NC and Bradenton, Fl) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Past Perfect: A Novel (Hardcover)

I am a huge Susan Isaacs fan, and although I have liked some of her books better than others, I have never read one of hers, well, tried to read one of hers, that had bored me to tears. I was half way through the book, put it down, and tried to pick it back up to finish. Oy vey, could not do it. This story is so boring, and the characters are so boring, I just can't believe this is Susan Isaacs. I wonder if she was busy and someone else wrote it for her!!! Sorry Ms. Isaacs, I'll try again next book.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not One of Isaac's Best, February 22, 2007

By	C. Schaefer (Stafford Springs, CT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Past Perfect: A Novel (Hardcover)

I am sooooo struggling to finish this book. It just drags on and on. The plot is thin. There is a dearth of action. But what really makes it bad for me is how very very cutsie the lead character, Katie, is. Bleah. I expected better from Isaacs. I'm not sure I'll finish it.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Get over it!, June 14, 2007

By	L. Quido "quidrock" (Tampa, FL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Past Perfect: A Novel (Hardcover)

I have to finish a Susan Isaacs book - but as I approached the end of "Past Perfect", I almost wished I hadn't. The single stream of consciousness I have for the heroint, Katie Schottland is "get over it already!". Katie, like most of Isaac's heroines, is interesting, has found her way into a great career in television, and has a strong marriage and great kid.

But she cannot forget the fact that she was fired from the CIA for no apparent reason....a call from a former colleague (that she didn't even like) promises to shed some light on her release, and Katie begins to dig and dig, in a way I can only describe as paranoid.

2 stars instead of 1 for the great character that is Katie's father! I like the fact that Isaacs takes time between her novels (instead of producing one a year) so that she can develop a great story and a sassy heroine. This time, she failed.