Rating: 
Summary: Both husband and I enjoyed this one
Review: I bought this book and started it, but my husband borrowed it before I could finish and I ended up waiting for him to read it all before I could finish. We both liked it a great deal. While somewhat predictable, still a great story. I did wonder how Judith would be able to get so many people to talk to her, but in real life, some people just have that ability. Excellent beach read too!
Rating: 
Summary: from cover to cover to cover to cover
Review: I don't know how I stumbled across this book but I do know that I was desperate to find something anything new to read. I picked up Long Time No See and I was instantly hooked. You know how some authors can make their characters so real that they spring off the page? You know how you can just see what they are seeing and feeling what they are feeling? Isaacs does that and more with this book. I read it and finished the last page. I closed the cover and was completely satisfied with the ending. I couldn't stand it. I opened it back up to the first page and started reading it again. Knowing the ending, in no way, diminished my enjoyment the second time around. Then I went back and read particularly good passages. I give the author especially good points for the absence of gory details. Isaacs doesn't give into the need to know every anatomical detail of the body to give the book that jolt of realism. I also liked how the heroine is a fifty something woman who doesn't jog three miles a day and practice shooting her pistol on her days off. I read and admire those kind of mysteries too, but this was something a little different--what it might be like if I tried to solve a mystery. Also, it's worth the read for the author's impressive use of the language to get the point across. Hint: I loved the use of the word "impotent." So, if you are considering this book, please take my advice and jump right in. I intend to find the author's other books and see how she handles other characters and situations.
Rating:
Summary: Clever twists and turns
Review: I don't usually read mysteries, this one was thoroughly enjoyable. I loved the narrator Dr. Judith Singer's character--smart, funny, wry, but still sensitive and sympathetic. The book is also filled with a host of delightful supporting characters, including Fancy Phil (gangster turned grandpa) and Mary Alice Mahoney Schlessinger Goldfarb (who offers insights such as, "Only first wives cook for their husbands.")
The best thing about this book is how the plot keeps you guessing. When Courtney Logan is first missing and then found dead in her swimming pool, Judith is employed by Courtney's father-in-law, Fancy Phil, to find out who killed her. One of the highlights of the book is Judith's relationship with Fancy and their clever dialogue. The ending of the book is great.
This book is by no means heavy reading meant to provoke deep thoughts, but it is highly entertaining. I'd recommend it for whenever you don't feel like thinking too hard about what you are reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Not my cup of tea
Review: I found the story line to be sluggish and uncaptivating in the begining. When it did finally weave into a plot, it fizzled. Besides not caring for the plot, I found the many over zelous metaphores annoying. The book is a light read if that's what you are looking for, but nothing more.
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: Judith Singer returns
Review: I really enjoy a well-written mystery book, one with witty asides and sarcastic descriptions of the surrounding scenes and the people encountered. Thus, when "Compromising Positions" came out many years ago, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and hoped that Ms. Isaacs would pen another work with her intrepid housewife/detective. It's been a long time in coming, but it was certainly worth the wait! This new work is excellent in every respect, from a well thought-out murder mystery, to the usual comments about everything and everyone involved. I must confess that I figured out what was going on a lot sooner than our heroine, but that didn't detract me from this wonderful story. Observing her inching her way to the truth was enjoyable in every respect. I can only hope that the wait for another of these books won't be as long!
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: Worth The Wait
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book ; it was too long since Compromising Positions however .
The characyers are well drawn ,witty ,and I wish she would write a book every year .
Rating: 
Summary: Worldview: Morally Bankrupt
Review: I was consistently amazed to read the story of a 50+ female protagonist who had lived all those years without acquiring any wisdom. "Judith" commits adultery in the early years of her marriage when her two children are small. She carries on for six months and confuses lust with love. Actually throughout the book lust is confused with love. Commitment means nothing, honoring your spouse means nothing, marriage means nothing (Judith's daughter is living with her boyfriend, Judith and Nelson decide to live together at the book's end). Additionally, Judith's best friend is portrayed as a promiscuous alchoholic and Judith describes her as an extremely "confident" woman. Come on!! Susan Isaacs revealed her lack of depth and character in the messages expressed in this novel. I need to take a bath.
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