Wry and witty mystery

I think I have read all of Susan Isaacs' books. They are all written with her usual flair, a bit tongue in cheek, wry, witty but full of life! Bad, Bad Seymour Brown is the second in a series, but, I don;t think you would get lost if you hadn't read the first in the series. It is a long-ish mystery set in New York featuring a father-daughter team of retired law enforcement turned private detectives chasing the one that got away, one of the father's cold cases, a double=homicide with surviving daughter now in peril. Great characters, great plot, highly recommended read by one of my favorite authors.

Thank you to the publisher who lent me an e-arc via Netgalley. This review is optional and my own opinion.

Corie and her father, Dan, are both retired from their careers in law enforcement. When one of Dan's old cases gets a new life, Corie and Dan team up as newly minted PIs. Decades ago April Brown's parents died in a horrific house fire. Seymour Brown was laundering money for the Russian mob and only April, aged five at the time, survived. Now somebody is threatening her and she turns to Dan who was on the case from day one. Corie and Dan make o great team.
With a great blend of a well crafted mystery and humor plus a nice pace, this was the perfect stress reliever. I hope this is the start of a new series. My thanks to the publisher Grove Atlantic and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Bad Bad Seymour Brown
Corie Geller, former FBI task force member, had married a widower who was also a federal judge. During the pandemic they invited her parents to move from a Queens apartment to her large home on Long Island. Her dad, a retired NYPD detective, was depressed about no longer being able to solve crimes and about some of the cold cases he had never solved.
In one of those cases, April Brown had survived the fire that killed her parents in Brooklyn years before. She was now a college professor but Corie’s dad had stayed in touch with her since the fire.
So when someone tried to run down April on the Rutgers campus where she taught, she called Corie’s dad for help.
Corie and her dad teamed up as private detectives to keep April safe and find out why someone wanted to run her down. First they had to find out more about Seymour Brown, an accountant who laundered money for the Russian mob.
This is the second Corie Geller story by this author. Corie and her father make a good team and I look forward to other books about them.
I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book in the Geller series, and not quite as enchanting as the first book. There is a solid story, but this book is slower to hook the reader. Once the pace picks up, it's just as solid of a mystery as the first in the series, and it sets up the rest of thes seies. It's the cold case/back in time that slows the book in a way, but it's an interesting solution in the end. Hopefully this was just a bit of a sophmoric slumbp and the next book in the series will be more fast paced like the first.

April Brown was 5 when she survived an arson fire that killed her parents and now, years later, when she's happily working as a professor of film studies, someone is trying to kill her. Corie, who stepped away from her job as an FBI Special Agent, has been at odds and ends, as has her dad Dan, a retired NYPD detective, since she left and due to the pandemic so when April reaches out to Dan- who handled the original case-for help, they jump in. Seymour Brown was an ace money launderer for the Mafiya- the Russian mob- and he was not a nice man to anyone but April. But who hated him enough to kill him and who saved April that night? Dan and Corey find themselves weaving through Seymour and Kim's lives, until the surprising conclusion. They meet some great characters along the way - you'll be able to visualize all of them. Isaacs is a great storyteller, with an ear for dialogue. And she kept me guessing. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Don't worry if you missed the first book- this one will be just fine as a standalone (there's enough info to catch you up or, like me, remind you of Corie's past). Terrific read.

I didn't read thre previous book but I had no issue with this one that I thoroughly enjoyed. A solid mystery that kept me guessing, a likeable cast of characters and enough twists to keep me hooked.
An entertaining and compelling read, recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

I really liked this book. I haven’t read the first Corie Geller book, but I was able to pick up with the second book without any problems.
I loved how Corie worked with her dad, retired detective Dan on the case.
It added so many touching and new aspects to the story.
Detective Dan was my favorite character because he wouldn’t give up and had to stay constantly busy. I laughed when the author described his talking back to the tv detective shows, a cop to the core.
There’s a lot more the book offers: intrigue, international wrangling, the Russian mafia. There’s something for every read in this book buffet.

This is the second of the Corie and her dad books and it was every bit as good as the first; maybe better!

Her dad doesn't have that get up and go anymore, at least until he starts to investigate a cold case from 20 years ago involving the murder of a man who laundered the money for the Russian Mafia along with his wife. Their five year old, April, escaped the fire and has now grown up to be a college professor. The problem is that it seems someone is trying to kill April so she wants to hire the father daughter team to determine if this is related to the murder of her parents or what?

I love the way the interactions among the characters all seemed to flow, even when witnesses needed a nudge to start talking. The surprises that popped up keep you thinking and not quite knowing for sure until the very end.

Thank you GroveAtlantic for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest opinion. I really enjoyed this book.

Personally, I found the book really hard to get into. I found the pacing to be slow and the style of writing difficult to enjoy.

This is the second in the Corie Geller series. Although I have read both of them, this one works well as a stand alone.

Former FBI agent and an Arabic language translator, Corie is happily married to a judge and step mom to a teenager. She is dealing with PTSD due to a kidnapping and torture in the recent past. During Covid, her parents moved in with them and are continuing to live there. Her father is a retired NYPD detective. One of his unsolved cases from twenty plus years ago was the arson murder of Seymour Brown and his wife. Seymour was an accountant who worked with the Russian mob, helping to launder their money. Their five year old daughter, April, managed to escape the house fire by jumping out a window.

When April, now a university professor, contacts Corie’s father because it appears someone tried to run her down, the father daughter team look into the case as well as try to solve the historical one. Along the way, they decide to become licensed as PIs and become partners in a new business venture.

With richly drawn characters, and Isaac’s signature wit, this is not a fast read.
It is more of a slow burn. The storyline strained credulity a bit as did the belief that Corie was once a savvy, successful FBI agent. But if you are OK with that, this is an entertaining read. I enjoyed Corie’s somewhat cynical but loving view of and relationship with her parents.


Thanks to #netgalley and #groveatlantic #atlanticmonthlypress for the ARC.

Corie Geller’s father, a retired NYPD detective receives a phone call from April Brown. She was the only survivor years ago of a horrific fire that killed her mother, Kim and her father, Seymour Brown, a money man for the Mafia. Someone is now trying to kill April and she wants Corie and her father to find out who and why.
This was somewhat a disappointing book from an author I have enjoyed in the past. It was slow paced and tedious with not much of a mystery. Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the arc. This 3.5 stars review is my honest opinion.

#BadBadSeymourBrown #NetGalley.
I love Susan Isaacs, this book is reflective of her excellent writing! She has a wicked sense of humor and this book is well worth the time.

The setting: "When Corie Geller asked her parents to move from their apartment into the suburban McMansion she shares with her husband and teenage daughter, she assumed they'd fit right in with the placid life she’d opted for when she left the Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force of the FBI. But then her retired NYPD detective father gets a call from good-natured and slightly nerdy film professor April Brown--one of the victims of a case he was never able to solve.

When April was five years old, she’d emerged unscathed from the arson that killed her parents [Seymour and Kim]. Now, two decades later, someone has made an attempt on her life, and she's asking for help."

And so it begins.

I was captured from the start. A fast read. Wry humor. Clever. A mystery. Some laugh-out loud moments at descriptions. I was along for the ride.

I think this is somewhat of a beach read--so keep that in mind.

Although the title is about Seymour Brown--who sets the book/plot in motion--until the end, Seymour is somewhat peripheral. It's more about Corie, her dad, and April--and some of the other characters--the dad's chauffeur, Kim's friends, and Corie's friend, Wynne.

I first read Susan Isaacs in 1978, when she came out with Compromising Positions--which I remember loving [who knows what I'd think 45 years later?!!]

Solid 3.5, but can't quite pull the trigger on rounding up.

I'm always very glad to read anything by Susan Isaacs and this sequel was very welcome. I'm looking forward to the part 2 of the story, so please publish it asap. We're not getting any younger here.

I have always been a fan of Susan Isaacs. That being said, I was a bit disappointed in her latest book. Very wordy, way too much police talk not enough family interaction. I don’t think most readers of her books are concerned with the ins and outs of police work.. I was waiting for a big surprise or a big twist at the end of the book and it just didn’t happen. Thank you for my advance copy. I will continue to look forward to books by this author.

cold-case, depression, family, investigations, multigenerational, organized-crime, PTSD, read, relationships, relatives, retired-cop, retired-FBI, survivors, threats, suspense*****

I've never read a book by Susan Isaacs that I didn't enjoy, and this one certainly didn't disappoint.
April Brown was only five when her house went afire by arson killing her mother, and her father who laundered money for organized crime. Now, as a tenure tracked professor, she is frightened by a deliberate attempt to run her down. So, she contacts the one cop she remembers from that time.
That would be the retired father of former FBI agent Corie Geller. That case had never been solved, but Corrie and her dad get into the cold case and let the local cops look at the current threat. Let the investigation begin!
Very good read.
I requested and received an EARC from Grove Atlantic via NetGalley. Thank you!

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the copy of Bad, Bad, Seymour Brown by Susan Isaacs. There was a lot of dialogue and not a lot of action. I wasn’t expecting a thriller-type book because I have read this author years ago, but there were so many ‘interviews’ (aka dialogue) it was hard to keep invested in the story. It did pick up and things started to happen, but by then I wasn’t really interested. The book was long and felt like it. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 because the end was clever and if you like cozy mysteries this book is for you. I just need more action.

This is the second book in a series but it could be read as a stand alone. Seymour Brown died in a fire years ago. Now his daughter, who was a young child at the time of his death, thinks someone may be trying to kill her. She contacts the retired detective from her case, he has kept in contact with her thru the years, and asks for his help. Seymour was an accountant for the mob. Is someone from the past worried that his daughter might have information that could be a problem for them, or does it have nothing to do with the past. This book has a few twists along the line with a plot that will keep you interested. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

I remember when Susan Isaacs burst upon the scene with Compromising Positions in which even the title reverberated with wit. In the late '70's, the literary world had not seen her like, and the popularity of the twisty suburban thriller was in the future. But she spearheaded that genre, and this is the latest example. With equal parts humor and mystery, she has crafted a father/daughter team of newly minted PIs, both retired from their previous occupations, and able to employ the crafts they learned from them. Corie and her Dad are hired by April Brown, a professor on tenure track who lost her parents in a horrific arson-set fire decades before, when she was only five. Dad has kept up with April through the years, so when she feels threatened, she calls on him and the cold case is hot again. There is plenty of Isaac trademark repartee as well as some twisty turns, however it could have done with a bit of trimming and not lasted as long as it did.

Susan Isaacs has absolutely nailed it with the second title in what (I really, really hope) is a series. It features Corie Geller, a forty-something semi-retired FBI agent and her dad, a retired police officer, So, lots of training, knowledge and experience between the two of them and nowhere for it to go -- until they decide to establish their own PI agency and start solving some crimes on the side. They have a great relationship -- their give and take is one of the most entertaining parts of the book. In this installment, Corie's dad is contacted by a young woman whose parents were killed in an arson house fire when she was five. He handled the case then, and it was never closed. Now the young woman's life is being threatened by a mysterious stranger and she is living in fear. Corie and her dad take the case and run with it. Everything about this book is entertaining. It is well-paced, the characters are wonderful, and the author skillfully keeps you guessing on the whodunit aspect. I truly look forward to recommending this title. I wouldn't call it a cozy -- it's a little edgier -- but it's got that kind of appeal. Readers who like Thursday Murder Club, Killers of a Certain Age, and Caroline Cooney's newer mysteries will love this.