Rating: 
Summary: Worldview: Morally Bankrupt
Review: I always want to finish reading a book once I start but I don't know if I can make it with this one - there is just one idiot comment after another that is supposed to be funny. Maybe you are supposed to be over the age of 50 to get the humor. The story line is slow and just goes downhill as I continue to read. I am 3/4 of the way through and could really care less "whodunnit".
Rating: 
Summary: Judith Singer Is Back...As Witty, And Ingenious As Ever!
Review: I am a big fan of Susan Isaacs. Her wit and wonderful characters are always winners in my book! I think Ms. Isaacs was at her best with "Compromising Positions," and "Almost Paradise." So I was happy to pick up a copy of "Long Time No See," which reintroduces her readers to Judith Singer, from "Compromising Positions," twenty years after the original intro. Apart from my eagerness to read this new novel, and to find out how Judith has fared, I looked forward to discover how Judith has aged, being a contemporary of hers, and to see if we still have things in common. ;)Judith, now a widow for two years, has earned her doctorate in history and teaches at a local upscale college. She has mourned her husband, who though not the love of her life, was a much loved companion. She hasn't seen the love of her life, Homicide Detective Nelson Sharpe for twenty years. At their last meeting they made a mutual vow never to meet again. Nelson, however, lurks in Judith's mind, never far from her thoughts. The now Dr. Singer has never lost the "detective bug" either, which she picked up in "Compromising Positions." When a local mother of two, Courtney Logan, suddenly disappears, the mystery peaks her interest. When Courtney's body is found, weeks later, in the family's covered pool, Judith's long suppressed detective instincts, chomp at the bit! Desperate for accurate information about the homicide, Judith actually knocks at the Logan's door and questions the uncommunicative, grieving husband, Greg Logan. What chutzpah! Logan's father, the renowned, very gauche, and dangerous gangster, Philip "Fancy Phil" Lowenstein, hears about Judith's visit, and pays her a visit himself. Yoiks! Actually, Lowenstein hires our "would-be sleuth" informally, to see what she can discover. The Nassau Police believe that his son Greg is the murderer, and have not made much of an effort to find another perp. "Fancy Phil" remembers Judith's effectiveness from "Compromising Position" days and hopes she will come up with some helpful clues...or maybe an answer to "who done it." The mystery is a good one with some surprises. Romantic sparks fly with the reappearance of Nelson Sharpe. And Ms. Isaacs' wit is as sharp as ever. There is nothing deep here; no gripping suspense, nor complex characters or plot. "Long Time No See" is a fun and entertaining read, however. And if you're a Susan Isaacs fan, you'll love it!
Rating:
Summary: Comedy and chutzpah combine in an entertaining mystery
Review: I read Compromising Positions, Susan Isaacs's first mystery to feature Judith Singer, when it was published in 1978, and only vaguely remembered the details of either characters or plot. But I was immediately drawn to the middle-aged Judith who is the protagonist of Isaacs's sequel, Long Time No See. No longer a frustrated housewife, Judith has earned a doctorate in history and teaches in a small college. She has also lost her husband to a heart attack two years earlier, and is still struggling to cope with widowhood -- this despite the fact that after twenty-five years her marriage had dwindled to "sporadic pleasant chats and twice-a-month sex that fit neatly between the weather forecast and the opening credits of Nightline." But Judith hasn't lost her satiric take on Long Island suburban life or her ability to express it in biting one-liners. Nor has she lost her chutzpah, her flair for creative fibs at a moment's notice or her daydreams about her one-time lover, Police Detective Nelson Sharpe. I couldn't get enough of her. (In the interests of full disclosure, one reason I loved Judith so much was my discovery that she and the protagonist of my latest novel -- Sheila Katz, a Jewish mother who falls for another woman while helping her daughter plan a lesbian wedding behind her husband???s back -- are sisters under the skin, or at the very least first cousins. I kept imagining them sharing confidences over Diet Coke and Entenmann's Fat-Free chocolate cake.) Nor has Judith lost her fascination with crime-solving. When Courtney Logan -- a neighboring wife, mother and budding businesswoman with an apparently charmed life -- turns up murdered, Judith becomes obsessed with finding out who did it. In the process Judith finds herself entangled with a variety of colorful characters, including (self-professed) reformed mobster "Fancy Phil Lowenstein." Needless to say, despite her attempts to forget about the still-married Nelson, they are soon joined together in uncovering both the murderer and their passion for each other. As Judith sets out to interview the murder victim's friends and associates, whipping up subterfuges as easily as she might whip up a souffle to gain entree, the pace is a measured one. As I enjoyed hanging out with her, this was fine with me. Mystery readers who are impatient with any delay on the path to finding out "whodunit" may find this one too slow for their liking. Those, like myself, who prefer "cozy" mysteries to blood-soaked thrillers and who enjoy a leavening of comedy along with the corpses will find this book a lot of fun.
Rating:
Summary: pulled me in like a fish to the bait
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It took me a little bit to get into the story but when I did, I kept on reading until I finished the book. Courtney Logan, who retired from a financial occupation to stay home with her family and, as a sideline, had developed a small business of her own, has disappeared. She went to get some apples and although her vehicle was found in the garage she disappeared. Five months later her body is found in the pool under the pool liner with two bullet wounds to her head. Judith, who is a history teacher and had lost her husband two years earlier, is a curious person. Since the loss of her husband she has been at loose endes and finds she needs something to give her life meaning. Years ago she had helped solve a mystery and felt the same stirrings in her to help get to the bottom of this one. During the other case, she had an affair with a cop for six months and then broke it off because they didn't want to hurt their families and now he, Nelson Sharpe, is back on the scene. They still have that old attraction to each other but will they follow their desires? The police are looking at the husband but she doesn't think he did it and goes to him, Greg Logan, to offer her assistance. He runs her off, but his father, "Fancy Phil" Lowenstein, a mob boss, finds out and asks her to help. Greg had changed his name so that people wouldn't know who his father was and be judged because of his father's occupation. He was trying to lead a clean, honest life. Judith questions several of Courtney's friends and acquaintances
and finds a wide variety of descriptions of what kind of person Courtney was like. Each person seemed to see her a little differently. Who was she? Judith keeps digging for the truth and finds more questions than answers. She portrays her characters in a realistic manner with a good dose of humor, by which I mean, they are colorful characters who could have had better morals, but people we see all around us at times. Hopefully not as frequently as we read in the book, but then this is only a book. I highly recommend the book. It is very entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: pulled me in like a fish to the bait
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It took me a little bit to get into the story but when I did, I kept on reading until I finished the book. Courtney Logan, who retired from a financial occupation to stay home with her family and, as a sideline, had developed a small business of her own, has disappeared. She went to get some apples and although her vehicle was found in the garage she disappeared. Five months later her body is found in the pool under the pool liner with two bullet wounds to her head. Judith, who is a history teacher and had lost her husband two years earlier, is a curious person. Since the loss of her husband she has been at loose endes and finds she needs something to give her life meaning. Years ago she had helped solve a mystery and felt the same stirrings in her to help get to the bottom of this one. During the other case, she had an affair with a cop for six months and then broke it off because they didn't want to hurt their families and now he, Nelson Sharpe, is back on the scene. They still have that old attraction to each other but will they follow their desires? The police are looking at the husband but she doesn't think he did it and goes to him, Greg Logan, to offer her assistance. He runs her off, but his father, "Fancy Phil" Lowenstein, a mob boss, finds out and asks her to help. Greg had changed his name so that people wouldn't know who his father was and be judged because of his father's occupation. He was trying to lead a clean, honest life. Judith questions several of Courtney's friends and acquaintances
and finds a wide variety of descriptions of what kind of person Courtney was like. Each person seemed to see her a little differently. Who was she? Judith keeps digging for the truth and finds more questions than answers. She portrays her characters in a realistic manner with a good dose of humor, by which I mean, they are colorful characters who could have had better morals, but people we see all around us at times. Hopefully not as frequently as we read in the book, but then this is only a book. I highly recommend the book. It is very entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: a great comeback by Susan Isaacs
Review: I've got a soft spot for Susan Isaacs and her writing: Since reading "Compromising positions" & "Almost paradise", years ago, I've become a fan, & have ordered everything coming out by her, months before it's actually in the bookstores. Some of her books I've loved, others I've merely liked. Never was there a book by Susan Isaacs that I've hated or been bored with. Even "Red white & blue", her weakest work to date, was finished in a matter of hours. "Long time no see" could be called a sequel, if we were to stretch the meaning of the word "sequel". In it, Judith Singer, housewife & recent widow, is slowly getting bored by single life & work at the local college. 20 years ago, she had helped solve a murder, by getting the detective itch. She gets the urge again, when learning about Courtney Logan's mysterious disappearance. She even, fearlessly, volunteers to help solve the mystery, working together with Courtney's father in law, gangster Phil Lowenstein. Part of the fun of S.Isaac's books is the terrific humour & the one-liners. Most of her heroines (and Judith more so than others) are wittier, more brave versions of everyday women. The actual mystery in this book is solved piece by piece, conversation by conversation, & we watch as, incredibly, Judith gets to the end of it. While she does this, she manages to have a reunion with her flame from long ago, Nelson Sharpe, who we last met in "Compromising Positions". 20 years may have passed, but (& this is part of Ms.Isaac's talent) it somehow seems natural for Judith & Nelson to get back together. Maybe, in the end, that's why I love Susan Isaacs: she takes everyday people, puts them into not-everyday situtations, and lets things happen.
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Summary: Hilarious and absorbing . . .
Review: It's been twenty years since the last appearance (in _Compromising Positions_) of Judith Singer, upper middle-class Long Island housewife and amateur detective. A lot has happened to her in two decades. She's now a widow, her husband having died suddenly of a stroke two years before. She's completed her dissertation and is now a professor of history at a small but well regarded college. Some things haven't changed, especially her love for homicide cop Nelson Sharpe, which she has kept carefully at bay all these years. Now, intrigued by the disappearance and murder of Courtney Logan, ex-investment banker and perfect mom, she finds herself semi-employed by Courtney's father-in-law, retired hoodlum Fancy Phil Lowenstein. Courtney's husband, the determinedly legit Gregory Logan, is the cops' favorite suspect, and Fancy Phil needs help finding evidence to clear him. It's right up Judith's alley -- until the case brings her into abrupt contact with Nelson and the old flame rekindles. Isaacs is always a hoot and a half, with a droll wit, a keen ear for dialogue, and a real talent for characterization. Every member of the large supporting cast is deftly drawn and entirely believable. So is the convoluted plot itself, as Judith works her way logically through the possibilities, borrowing her friends' talents and contacts to overcome obstacles and paying heed to that occasional flash of insight that keeps the investigation going. This is a terrific book.
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Summary: A perky mystery with a bit of spice.
Review: Judith Singer is a widow, but a long time ago, she had an outrageous and delicious affair which led her to fall in love with Nelson Sharpe, a former homicide detective. Knowing that being together and separating from their respective spouses would ruin too many hearts, they end the affair, with noone the wiser. Until now. A woman has disappeared in the neighborhood, and Judith, famous for having solved one old mystery a long time ago, just can't keep her passion for snooping away from this one. This leads her to a run in with a Mafia Leader who claims he is no longer one but wants her to find who killed his son's wife. When Nelson Sharpe discovers Judith is in touch with, and actually working for "Fancy Phil", he goes ballistic, and re-enters her life with an explosion heard as soon as you turn that particular page. Judith is fun, insightful, and someone you would feel you could not keep up with, but the mystery itself is agonizing, as author Susan Isaacs keeps a tight hold on all clues and manages to keep you turning those pages, if not for the romance involved, then definitely for the who-dun-it aspect.
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Summary: Susan Isaacs delights us...
Review: one more time. Isaacs is a first rate contemporary novelist. She combines the elements of mystery with strong, contemporary characters, primarily women. Dialogue is crisp and honest, supporting characters fit the lifestyle of the heroine, and the story moves along so fast that you are disappointed you finished it so quickly! All of her heroines are feisty yet vulnerable, with an "everywoman" style, and generally a little "long of tooth". Judith Singer is no exception. Isaacs' first heroine, of "Compromising Positions" fame, is back some 20 years after she stumbled into her first murder and her first love affair. Played by Susan Sarandon(a perfect choice), in the movie of the same name, Judith is even more fascinating once her children are grown, her ambitions in the field of history fulfilled by her Phd., and her memories of Nelson Sharpe, the police lieutenant who won her heart 20 years ago. Judith is urged to investigate a disappearance that looks like a murder by the father-in-law of the missing woman. "Fancy Phil" is a colorful, Jewish, "retired" mob man; good for many laughs and observations in the book. Judith's ability to spot the trend of "coldness" that runs in the life history of the missing woman
leads her to be able to solve the case, while assisting the police and fulfilling her obligation to Phil. Courtney, the missing/murdered heroine, is well drawn as a female who wants it all, and stops at nothing whenever she hits a brick wall, to proceed in another direction, no matter who she hurts. A great
villain and foil for the likeable Judith - another great read by Isaacs, my favorite author in today's fiction. Enjoy, and read all the Isaacs novels, you will find a treasure trove of witty characters and tales!
Rating: 
Summary: Another amateur detective
Review: Some years ago an acquaintance related his experience digging for placer gold on a mining claim. He had to remove tons of material to find the seam of gold bearing gravel. The author of this novel has loaded it with an infinite amount of material about this, that, and the other thing; degressions into the main character's personal life; flashbacks to incidents in a previous novel; and comments on older men. Somewhere, buried under all that, is a plot. If you are interested in the details of life in Yuppyville, you might like the novel. The plot includes missing people, missing money, insider trading, false identities, computer data searches, etc. The action starts out somewhat slowly, but the pace picks up as the story progresses. I fast-forwarded through the initial chapters, skipping most of one chapter. The plot was a little transparent as I had the guilty party identified a quarter of the way through the novel. Various elements of the plot have been used before by other authors. Overall, the novel is about average. It is something to read on a rainy day. Based on content, I would rate the novel at the PG-13 level.
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