Saturday, February 12, 2011

Humorous Mystery

See a picture of a casket and think, "Huh, is this book going to be depressing?"

See that the author is Susan Isaacs and think, "Well, this'll be funny with a twist."

Sure enough, As Husbands Go, is a witty mystery laden with Isaacs' usual memorable characters. Susie Gersten, happily married to Jonah, a plastic surgeon, has a great life. Her floral business is good, her four year-old triplets are healthy and keep her busy, and she has a husband who loves her.

Or does he?

He's not home when the triplets wake her one morning. No messages, no notes, no nothing. Nobody's heard from him. She notifies the police and her world is upended when they arrive to tell her Jonah's been found dead in a call girl's apartment. It looks like the escort killed him. Susie's life is now headlines in all of the New York papers. Her wealthy in-laws are stricken, and Susie is in shock. Had she missed clues, how could Jonah have sought "companionship" elsewhere? There has to be more to this story. And of course, there is and you'll want to keep reading to follow Susie on her road to recovery and discovery.

Talking about Susie's mother: p.73 She was belligerently unattractive, almost as if she'd been created in the late sixties by a male-chauvanist cartoonist as a malicious caricature of a feminist.

p.123 In regards to what people must be thinking: Or that someone like me had managed to score a privileged attractive-charming-gifted-successful Yale doctor only because he was one deeply twisted dude.

p. 140 Susie's grandmother says, "I can smell a lousy marriage a mile away. Anyone's, not just the three stinkos I wound up with. But yours, it smelled like a rose."

p.253 I tried to tune him out while I had a triangle of turkey and avocado and a bite of a grilled vegetable with hummus wrap that tasted like something you regret buying at an airport. ( I love that description.)

You won't regret reading As Husbands Go.

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