Death in a Hot Flash

by Jane Isenberg

Book Overview

Professor Bel Barrett has enough on her plate teaching English at a Jersey City community college, worrying about two grown kids and a significant other. Yet somehow Bellets a colleague, Vinny Vallone... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380802813
• ISBN13: 9780380802814
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.4" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Pepper, Spice and Everything Nice

Peppered with fun, spiced with Jewish ethnicity, there is earthy comfort in Bel's sharp-eyed realism as she faces the hard and comic mysteries of maturity. We can relate to the multigenerational trap between her adult kids and prickly aging mom, we can laugh at the loony loving friendships, and we are entertained from page one to the last as we follow Bel sleuthing through the back alleys of Hoboken, NJ on the trail of a new mystery. This is Nancy Drew grown into a warm and nurturing protagonist, one with spiky insights into life and love, a woman as real as your own best friend. Her voice - at once sophisticated and borderline-bawdy - is addictive. Once you've picked up the book it carries you to the end; once you've reached the end, it carries you to the next in the series. Keep writing, Jane, I want to keep reading!

Entertaining series

Professor Bel Barrett is a nice woman and so are her friends, her children, and her mother whose brain cells just needed a slight realignment. Jane Isenberg perfectly captures the multi-cultural ambiance of a community college and the dedication of those who teach there. The mysteries in this series are solid and fun. Bel is obviously enduring the joys of menopause and her references to it throughout will strike a chord with the similarly afflicted. The grimy setting of Jersey City, New Jersey is not ideal, but Isenberg almost makes the place sound appealing. I even like the author's photo on the back page. Like I imagine Bel to look, Isenberg has the kind of face you want to see on your friends-kind, bright, and smiling. The series is a fun way to pass a rainy weekend.

Entertaining, well-written tale of a middle-aged yenta

This is the first Jane Isenberg book that I have read, but it won't be the last. She has a way of catching you at the very beginning and holding your interest until the last page. It's refreshing to find an entertaining sleuth "of a certain age" who has zany friends but yet has the same worries all women of this age have - worry about young adult children and aging parents. Her crotchety mother is a real kick and her boyfriend Sol is a winner. I can't wait to revisit the gang in the rest of the series. You will not be disappointed with this mystery.

Fun

This was a fun, character-driven mystery featuring Bel Barrett, that menopausal professor with the two great friends. Bel ends up trying to find out who killed one her colleagues at the college. Could it be one of her students? Combine this with her father dying, mother coming to stay with her, son living in a kibbutz and what you have is a fun,well-thought out story. Just gotta love anyone that loves to munch on M & M's.

wry truth and delicious plot on every page

What a delightful mystery read! The plot is well-constructed and timely with many unexpected twists,while the characters are both genuine and distinctive. At the same time, the life situations of protagonist Bel Barrett, her family and her multicultural friends are ones that every mature reader will recognize with a blend of empathetic sadness and rib-tickling laughter. I recommend this highly satisfying book to all mystery fans, and especially to sandwich-generation empty-nesters, slice-of-urban-life afficionados, and those who know that 50-something women have the most interesting lives--even when they aren't stumbling over bodies. Bel Barrett and her creator Jane Isenberg go from strength to strength, and I can't wait for the next book in the series. Keep them coming, please!