Hot on the Trail

by Jane Isenberg

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060577517
• ISBN13: 9780060577513
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Avon Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Hot on the Trail

I have read the entire series and loved it funny, engaging and keeps you reading till the end. The book arrived quickly and in great condition.

A Most Satisfying Read

"Hot on the Trail" fulfills all the criteria for a satisfying read: characters with distinct and engaging personalities, a suspect-filled plot that develops intriguing byways, witty dialogue to move the story forward while deepening the reader's understanding of the dynamics among the story's cast. While these characteristics are highly enjoyable in all of Jane Isenberg's delightful Bel Barrett series, "Hot on the Trail" also successfully and empathetically explores the processes of aging, cultural alterations, and the many definitions of family. Isenberg's selection of pigeon racing as a crucial background element of the story adds interesting detail that also illuminates some ingredients of a murder. An evening spent with "Hot on the Trail" offers many satisfactions, whether or not you have met Bel Barrett and company before. Enjoy!

A perfect plane book

Hot on the Trail is an upbeat, fun read that brings me back to Hoboken,all those pigeons, two dead bodies, and that special brand of NJ politics! Finally, Bel and Sol get married and what a neat surprise the wedding is. Take this book on your next flight and enjoy!

Guaranteed Enjoyment

Jane Isenberg's newest Bel Barrett mystery "Hot on the Trail" is a page-turner that provides both suspense and laughs. Our witty sleuth is so realistic she feels like an old friend. Many of the situations Bel finds herself in will be very familiar to women over 50, which makes them even more interesting and funny. Just don't start this book when you have a lot of work to do.

charming romantic amateur sleuth mystery

Tenured Professor Bel Barrett carries a full load of classes at the River Edge Community College in Jersey City, but she takes on even more work when she intervenes to teach a memoir writing class at the Senior Center. Her live-in-lover Sol wants her to set a wedding date and start making plans but Bel finds herself putting him off because the thought of planning a wedding exhausts her. As a post-menopause woman, Bel has stopped using the estrogen potion and has trouble maintaining bladder control. While she deals with all these demands, a student in her class Flora Tomaselli tells Bel that fellow student Dom is dead. He went up to the roof in his pajamas, fell down, and froze to death. Flora also thinks her father was murdered by her uncle Emilio who owed him a large sum of money and wants Bel to prove it. Bel who always comes alive during criminal investigations agrees but Emilio has an airtight alibi and there are suspects closer to home. Bel Barrett does for Hoboken what Stephanie Plum does for Trenton. This is an upbeat amateur sleuth tale in which the major characters are in their fifties. Jane Isenberg makes it clear that life does not stop once a person reaches the half century mark; it just gets better. If the heroine is any example that is certainty true because she has a lust for life and an appreciation of it that younger people don't have. HOT ON THE TRAIL is a charming romantic amateur sleuth mystery. Harriet Klausner