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Executive Times |
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2007 Book Reviews |
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Past
Perfect by Susan Isaacs |
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Rating: |
*** |
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(Recommended) |
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Click on
title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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Justice In Susan
Isaacs’ new novel, Past
Perfect, protagonist Katie Schottland still wonders
why she was fired from the CIA more than a dozen years ago. When a former
co-worker calls in distress and offers to meet and explain the reason for the
firing, Katie leaps at the chance to close this chapter of her life, and
becomes embroiled in unraveling a mystery. Here’s an excerpt, from the
beginning of Chapter 6, pp. 50-52: In the cab
going home, I had a quick fantasy about sticking my key into the lock and
Adam pulling open the apartment door. Definitely
hot: his shirt would be open a couple of buttons, his hair mussed from
running his hands through it as he anguished over having been so tough on me
in the morning. That reverie evaporated within ten seconds of opening the
door. I was hit
with the familiar aroma of microwaved popcorn. In
the hallway, the dogs, who’d formed themselves into
their usual inverted V, were snoring outside our bedroom door. Inside, Adam
was asleep, though blessedly silent. Not only did he not snore, he barely
moved. Despite his size, our summer comforter was undisturbed, still tightly
tucked into the mattress. As always, he lay on his back looking swaddled.
Every once in a while he turned onto his side, but his night moves were
mostly smiles playing over his lips and the sleep-time erections pushing
against the tight covers. I went
into the bathroom for my nightly business: toilet, hand wash, contact lens
removal, de-makeup/tone/moisturize, floss/brush. How odd, I decided as I did
an anti-garlic tongue brush with my Sonicare and
almost choked as it slipped and hit my uvula, that someone like me, the
anxiety queen, a woman given to imagining her own death from a freak accident
on even the jolliest occasion (like catching fire while leaning over to blow
out the candles on a birthday cake), would marry a man who appeared to be without
a nervous system. All right,
that wasn’t fair. My husband was capable of emotion: he loved Nicky, me, the
dogs, his family, my parents, probably in that order, although there were
times I sensed I’d moved temporarily to number one and Nicky had dropped down
to two. But Adam definitely wasn’t given to huge hugs and shouts of I love you! His waking hours were an
extension of his sleeping hours: small smiles and, for me alone, erections. Well, I
assumed they were for me alone. Of course, I’d heard the usual marriage
horror stories: They always had
fabulous sex—not just once a week—and then, out of the clear blue sky, he
announced he’d been having an affair with one of the assistants at the
Gymboree on West Seventy-third and wanted to marry her! But I believed in
my husband. From high school on, Adam had had only one relationship at a
time. Whatever wild oats he possessed, he didn’t sow them around. Adam-wise,
it was bad timing that the Lisa Golding call came on the very day Nicky was
leaving for camp. Up to that point, I’d been viewing the summer as a chance
to rekindle my marriage flame. Not so much our sex life. That had actually
been good all along, both of us needing more than the national average. Also,
for a guy from What
needed rekindling was our life together. When Nicky was away on a school trip
or at a friend’s, our dinner talk was less conversation than alternating
monologues. Adam would tell me about his day. Knowing him to be a man of few
words, I’d pepper him with questions, just to keep him going. When there was
nothing more to say about zoo matters, it would be my turn. I had a lot more
to tell, since I was a storyteller by trade and blabby by nature. From
Oliver’s rages over letters from Bible Belters
complaining of clinging clothes that outlined both cheeks of Dani Barber’s butt to what was going on with the makeup
lady’s love life, Adam heard it all. Any leftover moments got filled with
politics, family news, or great issues like, should we go see Doubt with the Cassidys,
who always want to sit in the cheapest seats? Maybe this
is what happened to all couples after fifteen years together. Could we have
been like this right from the start? Were we both so taken with the novelty
of each other and the Katie wants
justice done, and on the pages of Past
Perfect, the plot twists and turns as she tries to solve the riddles from
her past. Past
Perfect is entertaining and light reading. Steve Hopkins,
April 25, 2007 |
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The recommendation rating for
this book appeared in the May 2007
issue of Executive Times URL for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/Past
Perfect.htm For Reprint Permission,
Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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