Compliments of a Friend — Susan Isaacs

Compromising Positions's Judith Singer is back in a story that delivers plenty of Susan Isaacs's renowned wit and sharp-eyed observations of the contemporary scene -- along with a riveting mystery!

Chic Vanessa Giddings, founder and CEO of Panache, the largest employment agency on Long Island, falls into a coma in the designer shoe department of Bloomingdale's . . . and dies. It's not long before Judith Singer, former housewife, current widow, and local history professor, decides to investigate. She cannot believe the official ruling: that her wildly successful, confident, and iron-willed neighbor committed suicide with a drug overdose. Vanessa was buying shoes, and Judith knows accessorizing is a life-affirming act. So was it foul play?

Tracking the gossip about the late Vanessa and trusting her own acute instincts about human nature, Judith encounters more than a few surprises (including a big romantic one) as she investigates the death -- and the life -- of the misjudged mogul who turned out to have been more vulnerable than anyone guessed.