Long Time No See: A Novel - Hardcover

Isaacs, Susan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060195703 ISBN 13: 9780060195700

Publisher: Harper, 2001

Synopsis

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 crudités, 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…

About this title

About the Author

Susan Isaacs is the bestselling author of eleven novels, two screenplays, and one work of nonfiction. She lives on Long Island.

From the Back Cover

"On an unseasonably warm Halloween night, while I was reading a snappy treatise on Wendell Wilkie's support of FDR's war policies and handing out the occasional bag of M&M's to a trick-or-treater, the 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 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 is also 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 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.

Reviews

The 20 years between Isaac's bestselling Compromising Positions and this second book to feature amateur sleuth Judith Singer have not affected the author's talent for snappy dialogue and astringent assessments of cant and pretension. In those two decades, Judith has raised two children, lost her husband, achieved a doctorate in history and is teaching (without much satisfaction) at a local college. When her Long Island neighbor, ex-investment banker and perfect mom Courtney Logan, goes missing, Judith become curious; and when Courtney turns up dead, and the husband is accused, she becomes downright obsessed. Greg Logan, it turns out, is the son of notorious gangster Fancy Phil Lowenstein, who arrives on Judith's doorstep with an offer to hire her to help his son. Naturally, her former lover, Lt. Nelson Sharp of the Nassau County Police Department, admonishes Judith to mind her own business, but she pursues her hunch that brilliant and beautiful Courtney seemed to be missing a certain "something" that no one could put a finger on. Judith suspects the key to the crime lies in the victim's character. How right she is! However, the real trouble with Courtney is that she's not very interesting, even at her worst, and Judith's investigation, despite several clever twists, goes on too long, as does the murderer's bizarre confession. But an upbeat ending will satisfy readers, and it suggests that it won't be 20 years before we encounter Judith Singer again. Agent, Owen Laster. (Sept.)Forecast: The major book clubs see big sales for this title: it's a main selection for BOMC and Mystery Guild, and an alternate for Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club. A 10-city author tour and Isaac's witty ripostes on talk shows should whip up interest.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Guess who's back? Judith Singer of Isaacs's best-selling Compromising Positions.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This long-awaited sequel to the best-selling comic mystery Compromising Positions (1978) reintroduces feisty Long Islander Judith Singer. In the more-than-20 years since we've seen her, she's acquired a doctorate in history and lost her husband to a heart attack, but she's held on to the zeal for investigating murders that landed her in so much trouble in her first adventure. Judith has been minding her own business for a long time, but when ostensibly perfect soccer mom Courtney Logan turns up dead in a backyard swimming pool, Judith can't resist getting involved. Courtney's husband, Greg, is the prime suspect, but Judith doesn't believe he did it, and neither does Greg's father, the Tony Sopranoesque gangster Fancy Phil Lowenstein. He hires Judith to clear Greg's name, and she goes about the job armed with female intuition, charm, and an amazing ability to lie through her teeth. She also gets to spar with Nelson Sharpe, a local police detective and former lover whom Judith hasn't seen in 20 years. A gripping plot with skillfully rendered secondary characters and plenty of tart humor make this sequel every bit as entertaining as its predecessor. Recommend it to Evanovich fans: Judith Singer is a 20-year-older version of Stephanie Plum. Carrie Bissey
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060195703
• ISBN 13: 9780060195700
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368