Long Time No See - Softcover

Isaacs, Susan

3.7

2,267 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0066214041 ISBN 13: 9780066214047

Publisher: Harper, 2001

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She's back! After more than two decades, Judith Singer, the heroine of Compromising Positions, returns in a rollicking new novel sure to delight Susan Isaacs's millions of readers

Some twenty years after COMPROMISING POSITIONS, Judith Singer again gets involved in murder and mayhem when, on an "...unseasonably warm Halloween night, fair-haired and dimpled Courtney Logan, age thirty-four, magna cum laude graduate of Princeton, erstwhile investment banker at Patton Giddings, wife of darkly handsome Greg, mother of five-year-old Travis, canner of spiced pears, collector of vintage petit point, and ex-president of Citizens for a More Beautiful Shorehaven vanished from Long Island into thin air."

Judith's life has changed. She now has her doctorate in history. Half her "working hours are spent at the Shorehaven Public Library as head of its oral history project. (The other half are spent at St. Elizabeth's College, mostly squandered in history department shriek-fests. I am an adjunct professor at this alleged institution of higher learning, a formerly all-female, formerly nun-run, formerly first-rate school across the county border in the New York City borough of Queens. )" She is also a widow. Her husband Bob, "the king of crudit�s, flat of belly and firm of thigh, a man given to barely suppressed sighs of disappointment whenever he saw me accepting a dessert menu from a waiter (which, okay, I admit I never declined), died at age fifty-five, one half-day after triumphantly finishing the New York City Marathon in four hours and twelve minutes." And although twenty years have passed without seeing him, she still cannot get her former lover, Nelson Sharpe of the Nassau County Police Department, out of her system.

Naturally, all eyes turn toward Courtney's husband, Greg Logan, son of Long Island mobster Philip "Fat Phil" Lowenstein. But since there is no body, there is no arrest. Then in the not-so-merry month of May, Judith comes home from work, turns on the radio, and hears Mack Dooley, the Logan's pool man telling WCBS radio: "Like, this morning, about eleven, I'm taking off the Logan's pool cover with this kid who works for me-you know, pump it out, acid-wash it, get it ready, and-" The reporter did attempt a question, but Dooley kept going. "So listen. The cover's fine, tied down real tight like I left it in the middle of September when I closed them up. The kid and I are kind of rolling it back and I see something. I say, Holy-You know how big raccoons can get? Except for the life of me I can't figure out how even a raccoon could work its way under that cover. Well, that second I see you know, it's a body! Jeez. Believe it or not, I'm still shaking. " Now it's officially homicide. And Judith comes alive!

She offers her services to the police chief 's suspect, Greg Logan, but he shows her the door, thinking her just another neighborhood nut. However, one night, as she's unpacking groceries, she gets a surprise visit from Fat Phil...

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Review:

In Susan Isaac's Long Time No See, Courtney Logan, former investment analyst, devoted mother, and Long Island housewife, leaves her home on Halloween night for a quick trip to the grocery store. Five months later, her badly decomposed body is found floating in the backyard pool, concealed by the pool cover.

Enter Judith Singer, who helped find a murderer in Isaac's 1978 bestseller, Compromising Positions. Something about the Logan case doesn't make sense to Judith, and she becomes so engrossed in the mystery that she actually knocks on the grieving husband's door and offers to help exonerate him. Long Time No See draws on the best of the light, character-driven mysteries, like those by Janet Evanovich and Mary Daheim. Isaac's first- person heroine is impulsive enough to get herself into trouble, yet thoughtful enough to invite confidences. And her voice is appealingly funny and honest. "Since becoming a widow," she reflects, when faced with a twist in her investigation,

I'd tried hard not to indulge in the lonely person's Happy Hour: talking to oneself. About a year earlier, in the drugstore, I found myself befuddled, dithering between a condom rack and a display of batteries, and was startled when I heard my own loud voice demanding: 'Why am I here?' But now I gave in and had a chat with me.

Although clever and well-written, the novel's real strength lies in its characterization and in Isaac's leisurely unfolding of the implausible dark side of the perky blonde murder victim. This is a welcome outing from a deservedly popular writer. --Regina Marler

From the Back Cover:

Judith Singer is back! After twenty years, Susan Isaacs brings us back the heroine from Compromising Positions, her first and most beloved novel, and returns to a great suspense story set in suburbia.

Judith's life has changed. She now has her doctorate in history. Her workaday hours are spent at St. Elizabeth's College, mostly squandered in history department shriek-fests. She also is a widow. Her husband, Bob, died one-half day after triumphantly finishing the New York City Marathon in four hours and twelve minutes. And although twenty years have passed without her seeing him, she still cannot get her former lover, Nelson Sharpe, of the Nassau County Police Department, out of her system.

With Courtney Logan's dramatic disappearance, all eyes turn instantly toward her husband, Greg Logan, son of Long Island mobster Philip "Fancy Phil" Lowenstein. But since there is no body, there is no arrest. Then, in the less than merry month of May, Judith comes home from work, turns on the radio, and hears the Logans' pool man telling a reporter that he opened the pool and found . . . a raccoon? Not quite. "I see, you know, it's . . . a body!Jeez. Believe it or not, I'm still shaking." The woman in the pool turns out to be Courtney, and now it's officially homicide. And Judith comes alive! She offers her services to the police's chief suspect, Greg Logan, but he shows her the door, thinking her just another neighborhood nut. But his father isn't so sure: Fancy Phil may have other plans for her.

Long Time No See is Susan Isaacs at her wickedly observant best. With razor-sharp wit and an irresistible mystery, she brings us back in touch with an engaging, endearing, and irreverent heroine we haven't seen in far too long.

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