- Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: Pocket Star; Reprint edition (April 28 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0743463145
- ISBN-13: 978-0743463140
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 10.8 x 2.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 200 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #864,467 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Isaacs's 11th novel has fewer sparks flying than nets dragging, but most fans won't mind a bit, given the amount of outside-the-bedroom adventure. Despite reinventing herself as the author of the novel Spy Guys and the creator of the resultant TV show, Katie Schottland remains wounded by her still-unexplained firing from the CIA, where she wrote intelligence briefs as the Cold War ended, 13 years earlier. When she gets a distress call from an old co-worker, Lisa Golding, who subsequently disappears, Katie plunges back into the notes she smuggled out of the office. She seeks help from an old flame and another ex-agent (now a log-cabin recluse) who helps her trace three of Lisa's former charges at the CIA, East German asylum seekers transported to America and given new names. When two of them turn up dead within weeks of each other, Katie decides to give chase to locate the third before the woman becomes the next casualty. And she still hopes she'll coerce her ex-employer to give up the truth about her termination. The operations stuff is well-done throughout. Katie's relationship with her sweet vet husband adds little, but TV show–based scenes are diverting, and her fixation on her last job is sharply funny and true-to-life. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
By turns sassy and serious, Isaacs's best-selling novels (including Any Place I Hang My Hat, 2004) offer variations on a theme: "What's a nice Jewish girl doing in a predicament like this?" In the opening pages of her latest offering, former CIA analyst Katie Schottland receives a call from Lisa Golding, an old colleague who desperately needs her help. Katie, who was inexplicably fired from the agency some 15 years before, has since turned her experiences to profit, penning a successful cable-TV show based on her novel, Spy Games. But she remains clueless about the circumstances surrounding her termination. Lisa, it seems, knows all the devastating details and offers to offer them up in exchange for Katie's assistance. But can Katie, now ensconced in upper Manhattan, with a nice (if somewhat milquetoasty) husband and a 10-year-old son, leave behind her safe, comfortable life long enough to learn the truth? Past Perfect has cliched prose and a plot that pushes the limits of believability (skeptical readers may wonder how the scattered Katie ever got a CIA post in the first place). But Isaacs, veteran novelist and screenwriter with a sterling track record, can be counted on to ring cash registers, and if this isn't her best effort, it does offer a cast of reasonably engaging characters headed by Katie, a woman determined--once and for all--to make peace with her past. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2.3 out of 5 stars (58 customer reviews)
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Yawn!!!, Mar 4 2007
By N. Gargano "nokegchris" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Past Perfect: A Novel (Hardcover)
I am a huge Susan Isaacs fan, and although I have liked some of her books better than others, I have never read one of hers, well, tried to read one of hers, that had bored me to tears. I was half way through the book, put it down, and tried to pick it back up to finish. Oy vey, could not do it. This story is so boring, and the characters are so boring, I just can't believe this is Susan Isaacs. I wonder if she was busy and someone else wrote it for her!!! Sorry Ms. Isaacs, I'll try again next book.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not One of Isaac's Best, Feb 22 2007
By C. Schaefer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Past Perfect: A Novel (Hardcover)
I am sooooo struggling to finish this book. It just drags on and on. The plot is thin. There is a dearth of action. But what really makes it bad for me is how very very cutsie the lead character, Katie, is. Bleah. I expected better from Isaacs. I'm not sure I'll finish it.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Real Disappointment, Feb 18 2007
By CT Book Lover - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Past Perfect: A Novel (Hardcover)
I used to love Susan Isaacs' books -- "Shining Through" being one of my all-time favorite books. Unfortunately, this books continues the trend of her more recent books: namely, short on plot, long on the cutesy cleverness of our heroine, in this case Katie Schottland. Katie has it all -- adorable son, handsome, caring husband, doting parents, great job, financial success. But she just can't seem to get over the only bad thing that ever happened in her charmed life: her firing from the CIA 15 years ago. "Past Perfect" gives us 337 pages of explanation of why and how that happened, blended in with a less than enthralling back story of CIA dealings at the time of the fall of East Germany in 1990. Excuse me while I snore.
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