I almost feel like Susan Isaacs didn't really write this book. It was, sorry to say, boring, at best. I couldn't connect with the heroine and the story draaaaaaaaged a bunch of places.
not one of my favorites from a writer who IS one of my favorites.

One of my all-time favorite books was Compromising Positions by Susan Isaacs-well guess what people-She's back! We meet fish out of water Corie Geller, wife to sexy and cerebral judge, Josh and step-mother to perfect child Eliza. Her life is just about heaven, except for the over the top house décor of dead wife, Dawn. She lives on Long Island and spends her days pitching publishers to buy books in Arabic, as she has mastered the language. On Wednesday, she lunches with a meetup for home business owners who share tips and secrets. But Corie is really ex-FBI who was a master interrogator with the government terrorist unit and she senses that one of the group members is not what he seems.. Will Corie get her man? Does a bagel require lox and a shmear? This was a pure delight to read-it was comedy laced with suspense and I really loved it.

Yeah, so this is a book about a former FBI agent who retires and becomes a suburban housewife who is so bored with her life that she starts eyeballing a neighbor as a Person of Interest. She can't tell if she's trusting her well-honed instincts or just, well, bored.

I vote for bored. I don't care what the revelations throughout the story say or what the neighbor is actually up to. Want to know why? Because if I was living her life, as told in the book, I'd be bored too. I was, in fact. So bored that I literally had to force myself to turn pages until I finally realized that I Just. Didn't. Care. And that's when I stopped and called it...

I just couldn't get into this one. The characters never grabbed me, the plot (such as I found it) never engaged me, the credibility never hit green (or even an extreme red such that I wanted to suspend disbelief). It just felt flat, from the opening gambit. I'm coming off of a string of VERY strong thrillers full of action and secrets and lies and misdirection. It is entirely possible that this one was just the wrong book at the wrong time for me. But it's also possible that this writer's style (dry to the point of Sahara) just didn't resonate with me. Either way, this one didn't work for me...

I didn't love it. I wanted to, but maybe my memory of her early books is faulty or my tastes have changed. The basic plot appealed, but I felt as if I were wading through a lot of pages to keep the plot in tact.

Corie Geller is bored. she left behind her life at the FBI counterterrorism task force for the life she thought she wanted - a wonderful husband and a beloved step-daughter. But now she is trapped in suburbia and she feels restless. So restless that she begins to imagine that Pete Delaney, a neighbor who runs his own packaging business from his home office, is really up to something. He always sits in the same seat at group lunches (keeping a close eye on his jeep out the window), is always polite, but never warm, and only gives the group the bare minimum of personal details. At first Corie thinks that maybe Pete is a former spook, just like her, but then she begins to wonder if he isn't up to something much more nefarious. In her usual clever way, Isaacs give us a strong protagonist with a good brain who is stifled by her suburban lifestyle. Her characters are interesting and well-rounded, her plot is well worth suspending disbelief and the dialogue is witty and intelligent. Quick, fun read that will have you skeptically examining the lives of your neighbors long after the book is over.

Thank you to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of Takes One to Know One.

I used to read Susan Isaacs in high school and college before moving toward more darker subjects, aka. horror.

I was excited when my request was approved because from what I do remember of Ms. Isaacs' books, her heroines are intelligent, witty Long Island housewives who get into some kind of mischief through some personality quirk.

Takes One to Know One has all the makings of a classic Susan Isaacs, but it failed to meet my expectations.

The setup isn't bad, actually. Corie Geller is happily married to a widower, a judge, who is kind and smart. She has a good relationship with her stepdaughter, who she adopted, and is living a privileged life.

But, she's bored. As a former FBI agent catching terrorists, she misses the excitement and thrill of the chase. Now, she's freelancing for a couple of literary agencies, reading Arabic-centric novels and writing professional critiques.

Corie also attends a freelancers lunch once a week and that's when her instincts go into overdrive.

One of the freelancers, Pete Delaney, has a few personality quirks Corie originally dismisses but can't help noticing. Something is off. Or is Corie looking for something that isn't there?

And, the story takes off.

Well, it tries to. The problem is that there's a lot of filler. A lot of exposition on secondary characters, Corie's social circle. I don't need to know what everyone does for a living, how annoying some people are, etc.

I enjoy Ms. Isaac's writing but there is such a thing as too much.

Also, Corie mentions (numerous times) how handsome her husband is. He's handsome but not self-centered. He's kind but not a snob. He's handsome and he wants her! How amazing is that!

Okay, I get it.

In many ways, this repetitive (and unnecessary) reminder takes me out of the story because, come on, how many people do you know are married to handsome gods?

Most of my friends are married or in a long-term relationship and I can assure you, none of them can give Idris Elba a run for his money.

The run up to how Corie discovers the truth behind Pete's activities is a slow, ponderous trek, made more so by the inclusion of Corie's well meaning parents, especially her dad, who is wasting away on retirement. Naturally, she pulls him into her shenanigans. And it invigorates him! Thanks, dad for your help!

Corie is smart and competent but I didn't like her. It was as if she was hoping Pete was a terrible person just so she could inject a little excitement into her life. She made it seem like she was unhappy with her current life as a wife and mother, despite the love and security she had.

She decided to settle for married life and leave the FBI (as she mentions plenty of times) yet her pursuit of Pete suggests she regrets the choice she made but never voices it.

The cast of characters is large, but development is poor, especially in regards to her husband and stepdaughter.

I didn't feel the love or chemistry between her and her husband, and there is very little interaction between her and her stepdaughter.

The story lacked suspense and urgency, mostly because it was bogged down with so many details, and could have used another edit to create tension and more focus on Corie and her family.

One of the best I’ve read in awhile because of the writing style, strong character depths and relationships. The plot was intriguing and the title absolutely perfect
Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this arc

I have read many of Ms. Isaac's books over the years... although I did enjoy the characters and her method of story telling, I found this one a little slow. I certainly didn't predict the end but felt myself fast forwarding through certain sections... Maybe with a little more editing and lighting up the writing, I would have enjoyed a little more.

I really wanted to like this book. I've been a Susan Isaacs fan for years -- some of her books are among my favorites ever. And I've missed her lately -- she doesn't come out with new stuff as often as she used to, it seems. So I REALLY wanted to like this book.

I didn't.

It was a real slog to even finish it. Normally I wouldn't have -- life is too short to read bad books. But I'd received a free advance copy from the publisher, and I didn't feel I could fairly review a book I hadn't finished. So I kept at it. It took me ten days to finish this book. TEN DAYS. I usually polish off a novel this size in 3-4 days, max.

If you're familiar with Susan Isaacs, you know that the heroines of her murder mysteries tend to be Long Island housewives who find themselves in the middle of a mess, usually the result of coincidence, circumstance, and the heroine's nosy/plucky tendencies. These women tend to be witty, self-deprecating and smart, and I have loved so many of them. Corie Geller was not one of those heroines.

Corie is a former FBI agent married to a widowed judge and new mom to his teenage daughter. But she's bored. Life as a Long Island wife is not what she was expecting, and she really doesn't seem to like her husband all that much. She seems to like being a mom, although it's hard to know that for sure -- we don't get to know her daughter well at all. I didn't feel that I got to know Corie, either -- even at the end, I had no sense of what motivated her, or why she was allowing herself to be stuck in this life she clearly didn't like.

In any case, Corie meets a perfectly ordinary guy in her Wednesday networking group, and finds something "off" about him. Next thing we know, Corie and her former NYPD dad are investigating this poor schmuck who hasn't done anything wrong except be weird. It just didn't work. It made Corie look nuts -- why invest all this time and effort, and drag your poor elderly dad into it as well? If I had been her dad, I would have told her to get herself a life. The way the story is told, there's just absolutely no reason for her to go off the deep end about this guy. Come on, Susan -- help a girl out and offer a little more motivation for all this suspicion.

Of course, Corie's instincts turn out to be correct, and suddenly we've gone from a fairly silly story about a fairly silly woman to a story about life and death. Things get pretty grim, actually, which doesn't fit with the rest of the book at all. And worst of all, you have to slog your way through 75 percent of the book to get to the part where anything actually HAPPENS.

I missed Isaacs' trademark humor. There's a funny line here and there, but generally Corie takes herself way too seriously -- very unlike a Susan Isaacs protagonist. Corie has very little personality, her parents are annoying caricatures, and her husband is dull as dishwater. There just wasn't anyone in the entire book for me to care about.

I wish I had enjoyed this book. I'm grateful to the publisher and to Netgalley for the opportunity to read one of my favorite authors, but I just can't recommend this one.

I have always loved Susan Isaac’s novels and this newest one is no exception. Pretty standard fare with well-developed characters and Isaac’s trademark humor.

Sorry to say that this book did not work for me.
The main character is leading a sickly sweet perfect life in a super quiet town with a perfect husband and stepdaughter, and now she is bored. So is the reader.
The pace also lets the story down, with whole chapters of description and detail.
At no time dud I get any feeling of high stakes or made to care about the impact on the characters.
Not for me.

Thank you for allowing me to read this book in advance! I love a humorous mystery!! It's a good solid book that will keep readers interested.

I really enjoyed this book by celebrated author Susan Isaacs.

The book is the story of Corie, a former member of an FBI task force on terrorism and now a housewife living in the suburbs. Corie, now living a more placid life as a judge's wife and stepmother to a 14 year old, has joined a work from home group to meet others living near her. There she shares she reads Arabic fiction to recommend to publishers, and remains quiet about her former FBI life.

At these luncheons, Corie realizes another member displays some proclivities that reawaken her investigative side, and throw her from housewife back into agent mode as her best friends and parents question if boredom doesn't have Corie imagining everything.

This was an interesting, twisty book with great dialogue and character development. I enjoy Susan Isaacs, and this latest does not disappoint.

Thanks to NetGalley.com, the publisher, and author for my advance copy.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book for my honest review.
Cori a former FBI agent and a member of the counter terrorism task force has married Josh, a wonderful, gorgeous and wealthy judge. She has also adopted his daughter, Eliza. Her life should be everything and more that she ever wanted, but she is missing the excitement of her former career. She is working from home reviewing books in Arabic when she reads a notice in the paper about other work at home individuals that meet once a week for lunch to talk about their work and also to relieve their isolation. Joining the group, Cori begins to suspect something is strange about one of the participants and begins to obsess about him.
Unfortunately, the book begins to bog down. It is only the last chapters where the book picks up and becomes interesting and more of what to expect from the author. I enjoy reading books by Susan Issacs, just not this time.

Lovely feel good story. It was well written and flowed well. Easy to read and hard to put down. Perfect on these summer nights

Long Island resident Corie Gelller is trying very hard to embrace her new life. She loves her husband, Josh, and adopted daughter Eliza, but misses her former job as an FBI agent more than she thought she would when she voluntarily resigned to become a stay-at-home mum.

One of the ways she has tried to move on is to join a local group of entrepreneurs who work from home and meet weekly for lunch. One of the other members of this small group however has set all her alarm bells ringing and she begins to look a little closer at the life he says he leads.

This is a book which only comes to life very gradually. It moves from how Corie deals with the vague ideas regarding her weekly lunch mate through her new family life and day job as an Arabic fiction scout before returning to a situation she is concerned she might be over analysing.

I had problems with this book, one of which was that I didn't need to be told how devastatingly handsome husband Josh was, or how deep the timbre of his voice was, each time he appeared or how much money Corie had married into. By the time this book burst into life I was roughly two thirds of the way through and, although I appreciate that this was supposed to be an investigation which began with very little to go on, it was a slow read for the majority of the time it took to complete it.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review but I'm not sure I could recommend it to anyone other than those who enjoy a very slow burning reading experience which, unfortunately I don't.

Good story about a woman who was previously FBI and is now doing contract work for them while also reviewing Arabic novels as the only job she mentioned to others. She belongs to a group of self employed people who get together weekly for lunch to talk about their work since solitary work leaves you feeling like you need to be with others. While attending these lunches she notices one man who doesn't seem to engage as others do, always sits in the same seat keeping an eye on his jeep. Hmmm... it makes him stand out. Oh wait, she probably does, too. Is her gut right in saying something is off about him or is she bored and looking for excitement?

Her dad, former NYPD is bored and this kind of challenge gets him living again, at least once she gets him really thinking about it. Her hubby, the judge? He has no clue what she is up to.

I'd give it 5 stars if it was shorter. There were aside topics that really didn't add to the story and just took up reading time. Without those, I'd rate it a 5. Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

For me, Susan Isaacs's mystery novels are less about the plot and more about the narrator and his or her world. By those standards, "Takes One to Know One" does not disappoint. Corie, the ex-FBI agent turned Long Island wife/mother/freelancer, is just the sort of character you want to spend a few hours with: smart but not too smart-alecky, fun, observant, warm, resourceful, and definitely able to tell a story. Isaac seems to have really done her research, but the information given about FBI training, police work, and the like isn't set forth in huge info dumps à la a Michael Crichton novel. While this book doesn't, for me, have the emotional heft of "Magic Hour" (my favorite of her novels), it's still a hugely enjoyable read.

Thank you, NetGalley and Grove Atlantic, for providing me with a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley and Grove Atlantic for an ARC of this title. I've read Susan Isaacs previously, and if you have as well, you'll know that she'll jump genres. It's a way I enjoy because you can still feel the same style coming through. This book is about CorIe Geller, formerly of the FBI, now an advance reader of Arabic to possible English titles. Her husband is a widow, and she's adopted his daughter, determined to be a good mom and wife. But, when she joins a networking group, her investigative background makes her think there is just something odd about one of the members. She jumps full-on into trying to find out if she's bored and grasping at straws, or if she's really on to something. I really enjoyed this book. The only reason I gave 4 stars out of 5 is that there were a few plot points that seemed far fetched, and there were a couple of character arcs that didn't really feel complete.. This had mystery, humor and that feeling we all sometimes have, "Is this all there is?"

As soon as I started reading, I quickly remembered Susan Isaacs style and banter. After reading several heavier mysteries, it was a fun, interesting read.