As Husbands Go by Susan Isaacs

As Husbands Go is the first book by Susan Isaacs that I've read.  I was on the fence for the first fifty pages or so about whether or not I was going to finish reading it or abandon ship.  I feel as if the blurb on the inside book flap is slightly misleading (and I always feel gypped when I find this the case with a book)--the blurb makes it sound as if the mystery and intrigue and flashy granny are larger parts of the book than they turn out to be.  The mystery and intrigue don't get cranked up in earnest until at least halfway into the book and the flashy granny doesn't make an appearance until halfway through and doesn't become a fixture until well past the point.  So those were my main quibbles with the book for the most part.

I like the clever dual meaning of the title.  And the characters who populate the story are wild, witty, hilarious, and superficial (though quite self aware of their own superficiality).  It is largely the characters' personalities and the clash of personalities that make the story so interesting and for me, it was more the characters as opposed to the story that kept me reading (though it was the characters in the first place that had me on the fence to begin with before they hooked me).  Honestly the hysterical narrator grates a little at the outset, but as the story takes off, and she settles down so does the hysteria.

Susie is living the good life with her plastic surgeon husband Jonah and their wild, three year old, triplet sons.  Their marriage and home life are happy ones of exhausted contentment.  Until one morning when Susie wakes to a nightmare: Jonah never made it home that night and no one, not his practice partners, not his parents, not his wife, has any idea of where he could be.  Frantically Susie calls the local police to report her husband missing and as the search drags on for days, she barely holds herself together for her boys.

When Jonah is found stabbed to death in a wannabe-upscale call girl's Manhattan apartment, Susie's life is shattered while all hell breaks loose in the midst of the tabloid frenzy that ensues.  In the weeks following Jonah's death Susie clings to what she knows to be true of her life and marriage and of her husband: that they were happy and that Jonah wouldn't cheat on her.  The circumstances of Jonah's death do not ring true with Susie. When she realizes that the authorities and her in-laws immediately glommed onto the obvious culprit in Jonah's death to the exclusion of thoroughly checking other avenues of investigation, Susie is determined to find the answers and the truth about what happened to her husband and why.

Susie is aided in her one woman pursuit of the truth and justice by her no-nonsense, glamorous, previously estranged grandmother.  Susie soon embarks upon a search ripe with questionable actions that only spiral downward as the story progresses.  One can only hope that Susie's actions don't come back to bite in the ass before the story closes.

I recommend you pick up this book the next time you visit the library.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie