5 ratings | 0 reviews | avg rating:4.80

Susan Isaacs’s Followers (503)

Susan’s Bookshelves

to-read (2)
currently-reading (2)
read (6)

Susan’s Friends (41)

Margot

1,616 books | 61 friends

Kara

856 books | 276 friends

Lisa Scottoline

7 books | 881 friends

Hank Ryan

229 books | 1,644 friends

Saralyn Richard

486 books | 504 friends

Debbie

868 books | 15 friends

Elizabeth Benedict

282 books | 318 friends

Maissa

414 books | 196 friends

More friends…

Susan Isaacs

Goodreads Author

Website

https://www.susanisaacs.com/

Twitter

susanisaacsny

Genre

Literature & Fiction

Member Since

April 2011

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/susanisaacs

edit data

I was born in a thatched cottage in the Cotswolds. Oh, you want the truth. Fine. I was born in Brooklyn and educated at Queens College. After leaving school, I saw one of those ads: BE A COMPUTER PROGRAMMER! Take our aptitude test. Since I had nothing else in mind, I took the test-and flunked. The guy at the employment agency looked at my resume and mumbled, “You wrote for your college paper? Uh, we have an opening at Seventeen magazine.” That’s how I became a writer.

I liked my job, but I found doing advice to the lovelorn and articles like “How to Write a Letter to a Boy” somewhat short of fulfilling. So, first as a volunteer, then for actual money, I wrote political speeches in my spare time. I did less of that when I met a wonderful guy, I was born in a thatched cottage in the Cotswolds. Oh, you want the truth. Fine. I was born in Brooklyn and educated at Queens College. After leaving school, I saw one of those ads: BE A COMPUTER PROGRAMMER! Take our aptitude test. Since I had nothing else in mind, I took the test-and flunked. The guy at the employment agency looked at my resume and mumbled, “You wrote for your college paper? Uh, we have an opening at Seventeen magazine.” That’s how I became a writer.

I liked my job, but I found doing advice to the lovelorn and articles like “How to Write a Letter to a Boy” somewhat short of fulfilling. So, first as a volunteer, then for actual money, I wrote political speeches in my spare time. I did less of that when I met a wonderful guy, Elkan Abramowitz, then a federal prosecutor in the SDNY.

We were married and a little more than a year later, we had Andrew (now a corporate lawyer). Three years later, Elizabeth (now a philosopher and writer) was born. I’d left Seventeen to be home with my kids but continued to to do speeches and the occasional magazine piece. During what free time I had, I read more mysteries than was healthy. Possibly I became deranged, but I thought, I can do this.

And that’s how Compromising Positions, a whodunit with a housewife-detectives set on Long Island came about. Talk about good luck: it was chosen the Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, auctioned for paperback, sold to the movies, translated into thirty languages, and became a bestseller. I was a little overwhelmed by the success. However, it’s hard to rise to a state of perpetual cool and go to slick downtown parties when you’re living in the suburbs with a husband, two kids, two dogs, and a mini-van, I simply wrote another book… and then another and another.

About half my works are mysteries, two fall into the category of espionage, and the rest are…well, regular novels. In the horn-tooting department, nearly all my novels have been New York Times bestsellers.

My kids grew up. My husband became a defense lawyer specializing in white collar matters: I call him my house counsel since I’m always consulting him on criminal procedure, the justice system, and law enforcement jargon. Anyway, after forty-five years of writing all sorts of novels—standalones—I decided to write a mystery series. I conceived Corie Geller with a rich enough background to avoid what I’d always been leery of—that doing a series would mean writing the same book over and over, changing only the settings.

I also produced one work of nonfiction, Brave Dames and Wimpettes: What Women are Really Doing on Page and Screen. I wrote a slew of articles, essays, and op-ed pieces as well. Newsday sent me to write about the 2000 presidential campaign, which was one of the greatest thrills of my life-going to both conventions, riding beside John McCain on the Straight Talk Express, interviewing George W. Bush. I also reviewed books for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Newsday. (My website has far more information about my projects than most people would want to know, but have a look.)

In the mid-1980s, I wrote the screenplay for Paramount’s Compromising Positions which starred Susan Sarandon and Raul Julia. I also wrote and co-produced Touchstone’s Hello Again which starred Shelley Long, Gabriel Byrne, and Judith Ivey. (My fourth novel, Shining Through, set during World War II became the 20th Century Fox movie starring Michael Douglas, Melanie Griffith and Liam Neeson. I would have written the script, except I wasn’t asked.)

Here’s the professional stuff. I’m a recipient of the Writers for Writers Award, the Marymount Manhattan Writing Center Award, and the John Steinbeck Award. I just retired (after over a decade) as chairman of the board of the literary organization, Poets & Writers. I also served as president of Mystery Writers of America. I belong to the National Book Critics Circle, the Creative Coalition, PEN, the Ameri ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Susan Isaacs questions, please sign up.

Combine Editions
Susan Isaacs’s books

Average rating: 3.52 · 31,479 ratings · 3,484 reviews · 66 distinct works • Similar authors

	Shining Through 3.96 avg rating — 3,675 ratings — published 1988 — 50 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Takes One to Know One (Corie Geller, #1) 3.43 avg rating — 3,492 ratings — published 2019 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	After All These Years 3.67 avg rating — 2,572 ratings — published 1993 — 54 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Long Time No See (Judith Singer, #2) 3.74 avg rating — 2,521 ratings — published 2001 — 41 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Compromising Positions (Judith Singer, #1) 3.67 avg rating — 2,512 ratings — published 1978 — 45 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	As Husbands Go 2.98 avg rating — 3,017 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Any Place I Hang My Hat 3.30 avg rating — 2,421 ratings — published 2004 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Almost Paradise 3.75 avg rating — 1,677 ratings — published 1984 — 37 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bad, Bad Seymour Brown (Corie Geller, #2) 3.81 avg rating — 1,598 ratings — published 2023 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lily White 3.57 avg rating — 1,504 ratings — published 1996 — 45 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Susan Isaacs…

13 posts
Susan Isaacs's Blog

With my old pal Fran Lebowitz...

With my old pal Fran Lebowitz at the Patchogue Theater. She remains hilarious and wise.

View more on Susan Isaacs's website »

1 like · Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on October 12, 2023 17:00

View all 13 posts »

Series by Susan Isaacs

Judith Singer (3 books)
by

Susan Isaacs (Goodreads Author)

3.69 avg rating — 5,458 ratings

Corie Geller (2 books)
by

Susan Isaacs (Goodreads Author)

3.55 avg rating — 5,090 ratings

Susan is Currently Reading

Susan Isaacs is currently reading

So Much Blue

by Percival Everett

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Jul 06, 2023 06:33AM

Susan Isaacs is currently reading

Quietly Hostile: Essays

by Samantha Irby (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Jul 06, 2023 06:31AM

rss
Susan’s Recent Updates

Susan Isaacs wrote a new blog post With my old pal Fran Lebowitz... With my old pal Fran Lebowitz at the Patchogue Theater. She remains hilarious and wise.
Oct 13, 2023 06:46AM · 1 like · like

More of Susan's books…

Quotes by Susan Isaacs (?)

“Keep in mind that the only person to write for is yourself.Tell the story you most desperately want to read.”
― Susan Issacs

18 likes

“I hate alliterative names. They suck.”
― Susan Isaacs, Compromising Positions

5 likes

“She has been excessively cheery. In a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, that is always a sign of a fairly severe depression.”
― Susan Isaacs, After All These Years

4 likes

See all Susan Isaacs's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Seasonal Read...: Summer Challenge 2010 Completed Tasks (do NOT delete any posts in this thread)	3022	3283	Aug 31, 2010 10:39PM
Pick-a-Shelf: Emily's YOU CHOOSE Challenge	11	62	Nov 01, 2010 12:16PM
Cover to Cover Ch...: Ellen's 2010 Booklist	6	114	Dec 31, 2010 02:46PM

More…

Susan Isaacs’s Followers (503)

Add New
Videos

Susan’s Bookshelves

Susan’s Friends (41)

Susan Isaacs

Goodreads Author

Learn more
Ask the Author

Popular Answered Questions

Combine Editions
Susan Isaacs’s books

13 posts
Susan Isaacs's Blog

With my old pal Fran Lebowitz...

Series by Susan Isaacs

Susan is Currently Reading

rss
Susan’s Recent Updates

With my old pal Fran Lebowitz...

Topics Mentioning This Author

Susan’s Friend Comments

Susan Isaacs’s Followers (503)

Susan Isaacs

Goodreads Author

Popular Answered Questions

rssSusan’s Recent Updates

Topics Mentioning This Author

rss
Susan’s Recent Updates