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Hot on the Trail »

Book cover image of Hot on the Trail by Jane Isenberg

Authors: Jane Isenberg
ISBN-13: 9780060577513, ISBN-10: 0060577517
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: October 2004
Edition: (Non-applicable)

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Author Biography: Jane Isenberg

Jane Isenberg taught English to urban community college students for close to thirty years. She has been writing mysteries ever since she experienced her first hot flash. Her copies of Modern Maturity are delivered to her new home in Amherst, Massachusetts, that she shares with her husband Phil Thompkins.

Book Synopsis

The seventh delightful mystery starring community college professor Bel Barret, the sleuth that the Baldwin City Ledger calls, "Evanovich's Stephanie Plum twenty–five years later."

Fifty–something community college professor and amateur sleuth Bel Barrett is at it again. When Dom Tomaselli, a student from her memoir–writing class for senior citizens, shows up dead, she agrees to investigate whether his fall from a rooftop was an accident––or murder. But with her aged mother so depressed that she can't even make her weekly trips to Atlantic City, and with her wedding to her boyfriend Sal coming up, she hardly has time for anything, let alone sleuthing. So with the help of Dom's daughter Flora, Bel determines that Dom's inveterate gambler brother–in–law, who owed him money, is the primary suspect. But could an extortion plot and a long–ago arson case also be central to the old man's demise? With the help of her best pals from the community college, Bel weaves together the different strands of one of the most baffling cases she's ever seen...and discovers that the history of her beloved Hoboken is far more sordid than she'd ever imagined.

Publishers Weekly

Isenberg's latest Bel Barrett mystery glows with heart, humor and hot flashes. One winter night, elderly pigeon fancier Dominic Tomaselli falls off a Hoboken roof and dies of exposure. His daughter suspects foul play and calls in Professor Bel Barrett, who teaches the senior memoir class Dominic attended. An inveterate sleuth, Bel welcomes distraction from the chagrins of menopause and the challenge of planning a wedding (to longtime live-in love Sol) that will accommodate her army of friends and relatives without breaking the bank. Drawing on the class's memoirs and the help of her staunch female pals, Bel slowly untangles the truth about Dom's death-and gets happily wed as well. Her investigation is low-key at best (strategy: chat with suspects and sources constantly, preferably over snacks), but the book's sharp-eyed energy more than compensates for the mystery's mildness. Beautifully drawn, Bel tackles everything from meddlesome kids to stress incontinence with zesty honesty. Thoughtful references to the human cost of urban gentrification, the complexities of elder care and the lingering aftermath of 9/11 anchor her playful ruminations; underneath its comedy, the book is a surprisingly nuanced look at the way individual lives and communities survive difficult transitions. Agent, Laura Peterson (Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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