By Susan Isaacs
For Judith Singer, the lovable Long-Island housewife turned sleuth from Isaacs's Compromising Positions, the past 20 years have been strikingly uneventful. Sure, she has earned her doctorate in history, but mostly she has been trying to shake the memory of her long-ago torrid affair with detective Nelson Sharpe, the man she was "born to dance with."
Her health-conscious, crudites-eating husband suddenly drops dead after running a marathon, and a perky socialite vanishes. Hmm. "Upper-middle-class suburban women with biweekly lip-waxing appointments tend not to disappear," Judith notes perspicaciously. The socialite's father-in-law is a mobster who wants Judith on the case. Soon it's as though a menopausal Bridget Jones has teamed up with Tony Soprano.
Isaacs serves up too many red herrings and the case's facts are repeated more often than Law & Order. But with her hilarious satire of suburbia, riveting plot turns and zingy one-liners, who cares? They'll fix it in the screenplay. (HarperCollins, $26)
Bottom Line: Fire up the popcorn popper
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