Review of Takes One to Know One by Susan Isaacs

Corie Geller used to be an FBI agent.  Now, she’s a judge’s wife and a mother to her husband’s teenage daughter.  Corie is currently self-employed and works from home.  She lives a quiet life on Long Island… too quiet it seems.  Her only new acquaintances since moving to the suburbs are the other self-employed work-from-homers in her weekly lunch group.  Clearly, she’s bored.  That must be why she begins to fixate on the suspicious quirks of one of the men in the group.  With the help of her father, who is a retired NYPD detective, as well as some old contacts at the FBI, Corie investigates Pete Delaney.  On the surface, Pete is a freelance packaging designer and a normal family man.  But is there more to him?  Corie is determined to find out.

I really feel for Corie.  I get bored with the quiet life, too.  The only real excitement I experience is what I find in books or what I make up in my head.  I understand her motivation to investigate Pete.  Plus, she’s an interesting character.  She learned Arabic in college, and it became an integral part of her job as an FBI agent.  Now, she scouts Arabic fiction that can successfully be translated for an English-speaking audience.  That’s interesting right?  Still, Corie is bored with her regular life.  So bored that she recruits her dad to help investigate Pete.  I love Corie’s dad as much as I love Corie.  Since his retirement, he's been just as bored as Corie.  They are two bored peas in a boring pod.  I’m glad they teamed up, and I’m glad Corie got support from her dad even though her entire investigation was based on a gut feeling.

I’m not going to BS you, though.  The story was slow at first.  It was almost like it was dragging as much as Corie’s life.  Once Corie really got into the investigation, however, the anticipation built and kept building.  I totally got sucked into the need to find out what was up with Pete, and I wasn’t disappointed.

If you’ve already read Takes One to Know One, what did you think of it?  Did you get sucked in as well?  And if you know of any other novels similar to this, please let me know in the comments.