Other books by Susan Isaacs that I've enjoyed were Lily White, a crime thriller about a lawyer amid the privileged Long Island set After all these Years, about a woman whose husband leaves her after their silver wedding party and is subsequently found murdered and Magic Hour, murder and romance in The Hamptons. One exception to the humour element was Shining Through, a World War two romantic spy story, a good book which was made into a (reputedly) awful film with Michael Douglas. Although the protagonist is invariably a strong female, she varies her themes, from crime to romantic to historical, usually with a refreshing, funny touch. I read most of Susan Isaacs' subsequent books, most of which I enjoyed a great deal. Maybe it would not seem that original now, but I loved it at the time. This was a very funny book, and I'd be interested to know if it was the first of the genre of "wisecracking, domestic, comic mystery" as one blurb has it. When a local dentist and "stud" is found murdered, Judith's life takes on a new purpose as she determines to solve the crime - not least when she discovers that several of her women friends (supposedly happily married mothers) have been captured photographically by the dead man - in the compromising positions of the title. The plot concerns a suburban housewife, Judith, who is bored and stifled by the domestic grind. Published in 1985, almost 10 years before the first Stephanie Plum book, the novel was like a breath of fresh air, unlike anything I had read before.
Before there was Janet Evanovich or Desperate Housewives there was Susan Isaacs, an author I discovered quite by chance when I noticed a then-just-published bright yellow Penguin paperback with the intriguing title of Compromising Positions.
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