Bel Barrett Books In Order
- The M Word (1999)
- Death in a Hot Flash (2000)
- Mood Swings to Murder (2000)
- Midlife Can Be Murder (2001)
- Out of Hormone’s Way (2002)
- Hot and Bothered (2003)
- Hot on the Trail (2004)
- Hot Wired (2005)
Novels
- The Bones and the Book (2012)
- Murder in the Melting Pot (2018)
Collections
- Motherhood Is Murder (2003)
Bel Barrett Book Covers
Novels Book Covers
Collections Book Covers
Jane Isenberg Books Overview
Death in a Hot Flash
Professor Bel Barrett has enough on her plate teaching English at a Jersey City community college. Between hot flashes, she’s worrying about her two grown kids and whether her significant other is becoming less significant. Yet somehow Bel lets a colleague, Vinny Vallone part time Funeral Services Education teacher, big time undertaker flatter her into believing that the future of feminism in the funeral business depends on her acting as a role model by teaching his class how to research and write. But before Bel actually gets into co teaching the inner city undertaker wannabes, Vinny the undertaker turns into Vinny the deceased. There’s no doubt it’s murder, and suspicion is focused on one of Bel’s students, a young reformed ex gangster. Bel doesn’t believe the born again ex con murdered Vinny and, as always, she makes it her business to right a wrong. With no shortage of suspects, Bel sets out to catch a killer, despite the strong possibility that her nose for news may land her in a hot spot even she can’t fan her way out of. Professor Bel Barrett has enough on her plate teaching English at a Jersey City community college. Between hot flashes, she’s worrying about her two grown kids and whether her significant other is becoming less significant. Yet somehow Bel lets a colleague, Vinny Vallone part time Funeral Services Education teacher, big time undertaker flatter her into believing that the future of feminism in the funeral business depends on her acting as a role model by teaching his class how to research and write. But before Bel actually gets into co teaching the inner city undertaker wannabes, Vinny the undertaker turns into Vinny the deceased. There’s no doubt it’s murder, and suspicion is focused on one of Bel’s students, a young reformed ex gangster. Bel doesn’t believe the born again ex con murdered Vinny and, as always, she makes it her business to right a wrong. With no shortage of suspects, Bel sets out to catch a killer, despite the strong possibility that her nose for news may land her in a hot spot even she can’t fan her way out of. Professor Bel Barrett has enough on her plate teaching English at a Jersey City community college. Between hot flashes, she’s worrying about her two grown kids and whether her significant other is becoming less significant. Yet somehow Bel lets a colleague, Vinny Vallone part time Funeral Services Education teacher, big time undertaker flatter her into believing that the future of feminism in the funeral business depends on her acting as a role model by teaching his class how to research and write. But before Bel actually gets into co teaching the inner city undertaker wannabes, Vinny the undertaker turns into Vinny the deceased. There’s no doubt it’s murder, and suspicion is focused on one of Bel’s students, a young reformed ex gangster. Bel doesn’t believe the born again ex con murdered Vinny and, as always, she makes it her business to right a wrong. With no shortage of suspects, Bel sets out to catch a killer, despite the strong possibility that her nose for news may land her in a hot spot even she can’t fan her way out of.
Mood Swings to Murder
Dead Ringer for a Dead SingerFifty something New Jersey community college professor Bel Barret has had enough ‘changes of life’ lately to last her a lifetime. Her daughter has cheerfully announced her pregnancy and her impending marriage in a single e mail. Her son has come back home to find himself, but all he’s found so far is the TV remote. Even a romantic stroll covering the Hoboken waterfront with live in love Sol can do nothing to stabilize Bel’s menopausal mood swings especially when they stumble across the corpse of a stranger in the night who turns out to be…
Frank Sinatra?Actually, the bogus Blue Eyes was one Louie Palumbo, a sorry imitation of the late local icon. And since Louie had been dating and two timing one of Bel’s favorite students, the unfortunate co ed is now the prime suspect in Palumbo’s slaying. Bel’s determined to go all the way to rout out the real killer. But that means plunging estrogen patch first into the strange world of obsessive Sinatra worship a move that could prove to be something stupid…
maybe even fatal!
Out of Hormone’s Way
A River of WoeMaybe it was a case of menopausal madness or the blatant bribe of a pound bag of M&Ms but fifty something Jersey City community college prof Bel Barrett found herself agreeing to head up the Urban Kayaking Club. Now she’s dragging her tush down to the banks of the Hackensack River early every Saturday morning when she could be doing something constructive…
like sleeping. But murder puts a damper on her ‘natural’ enthusiasm when the battered corpse of Belinda Judd who didn’t show up at their previous outing is discovered a day later. The cops’ prime suspect is club president Jason, who blatantly lied about seeing the dead girl. Jason needs Bel’s help, but it’s not for this smarmy college Casanova that she’s determined to get justice. It’s for sweet, shy Belinda, who didn’t have an enemy in the world…
except for the creep who killed her, and who is now looking to sink Bel as well.
Hot and Bothered
The Beat Goes On Things are scarier since that black day in September that shook Manhattan and the world. But across the river in Hoboken, New Jersey, community college professor Bel Barrett intends to live without fear, despite her honey Sol’s newborn wish that they retire and escape to somewhere remote. So Bel turns her attentions to home renovation, civic matters, and to an increasingly bitter battle for scholarship money, a contest she and three others must ultimately decide. Then one of the other judges is found dead on the mean streets of Hoboken a woman who lived a strange double life as academic by day and stripper by night. Unsure whether the solution to her friend’s murder lies in the hallowed halls of learning or the smoky dens of flesh and fantasy, Bel decides to investigate both. But education and titillation could prove a most volatile mix and a murderer may be closer than she thinks.
Hot on the Trail
The seventh delightful mystery starring community college professor Bel Barret, the sleuth that the Baldwin City Ledger calls, ‘Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum twenty five years later.’ Fifty something community college professor and amateur sleuth Bel Barrett is at it again. When Dom Tomaselli, a student from her memoir writing class for senior citizens, shows up dead, she agrees to investigate whether his fall from a rooftop was an accident or murder. But with her aged mother so depressed that she can’t even make her weekly trips to Atlantic City, and with her wedding to her boyfriend Sal coming up, she hardly has time for anything, let alone sleuthing. So with the help of Dom’s daughter Flora, Bel determines that Dom’s inveterate gambler brother in law, who owed him money, is the primary suspect. But could an extortion plot and a long ago arson case also be central to the old man’s demise? With the help of her best pals from the community college, Bel weaves together the different strands of one of the most baffling cases she’s ever seen…
and discovers that the history of her beloved Hoboken is far more sordid than she’d ever imagined.
Hot Wired
With a great job as a community college professor, some peace and quiet now that the kids are out of the house, and a loving new husband, it would seem Bel Barrett finally has a chance to kick back and enjoy life. But just when things seem too good to be true, trouble rears its ugly head again this time in the form of a hateful rap that’s circulating on a popular college website. In the old days, the bathroom wall was the place to air grievances for a bad grade or a pop quiz. But now Bel’s learning that the internet is a lot more effective at ruining a reputation students across the country think she’s a racist and a sexist, all thanks to a vengeful rap posted on pickurprofs. com. With a little sleuthing, Bel realizes that a former student, who dropped out, joined the army, and lost his arm fighting in Iraq, is taking out his frustrations at her expense. The wannabe rapper wants to make sure someone pays for his misfortune, and with the administration breathing down her neck, and her job in jeopardy, Bel may very well be the one. And while she’s concentrating on keeping her job, and keeping her life in order, the rapping avenger turns up dead on the subway track, and all signs point to Bel as the most likely suspect. Now a middle aged, law abiding college professor has to find the evidence to prove she’s innocent, before the decision to give one bad grade lands her in jail for a long, long time.
Motherhood Is Murder
Four of mystery’s reigning matriarchs have joined together to concoct a delectable stew of clues, corpses, and felonious hijinks all spectacularly seasoned with a mother’s loving touch! In this witty and winning quartet of all new mysteries, the incomparable Mary Daheim gives harried mom Cousin Renie from the bestselling ‘Bed and Breakfast’ series a triple dose of the murderous wedding bell blues; the inimitable award winner Carolyn Hart of ‘Death on Demand’ fame lets madcap mother in law Laurel Darling take a turn at the investigative chores; the remarkable Jane Isenberg sets menopausal mother Bel Barrett loose to solve a dastardly case of nanny cide; and the fabulous Shirley Rousseau Murphy whose ‘Joe Grey’ mysteries are the cat’s meow enchants once again, as a delightful duo of feline mamas sinks their clawsinto a murder investigation. So sit back and enjoy the Mother of All Mystery Collections!
Related Authors