Corie Geller is a mild-mannered freelancer. Her husband Josh is a judge who lost his first wife rather suddenly. Corie fell in love with him and his 14-year-old daughter Eliza, and decided to become wife and mother in her 30s and move to a quiet neighborhood with big houses and well-manicured lawns. She works for literary agencies, reading Arabic books and making recommendations for whether they should try to sell the translations or not. Her best friend is a stylist to the rich and powerful, her parents are doing well and still living in the apartment in New York City that she grew up in. She has more than enough money to enjoy life, and she has the great family and good job to boot.
But she also has a secret.
Before her idyllic married life, she was a federal agent. Working for the FBI in counter-terrorism, Corie helped to interrogate terrorists and criminals, her background in Arabic making her a valuable player in a post-9/11 world. She’s been in classes that teach her what to do if she is drugged or kidnapped, she has studied martial arts and weaponry, she has been taught how to conduct herself with intelligence in any situation. She even had help finding her publishing job and creating her new bio, so that she can still occasionally freelance for the FBI without drawing any suspicion to herself. She was taught how to blend in, to be normal, to be almost invisible.
And that’s how she noticed Pete.
As a freelancer working from home, Corie was lonely and looked for ways to make new friends. She discovered that her town had a small group of individuals who all worked for themselves and who met once a week for lunch. Joining the group, she found out that her new friends all had diverse businesses. One wrote political speeches, one did landscaping, another sold things on eBay. And then there was Pete. Pete was a package designer who had been laid off from his ad agency job during the recession. Pete seemed nice enough, but Corie couldn’t help but feel that something was off. Her years of investigating had honed her senses, and her instincts told her that he was hiding something.
As Corie follows her instincts and starts to investigate him, she doesn’t know what she’ll find. Maybe he’s just a guy with bad social skills. Maybe he’s dealing drugs. Maybe he has a girlfriend he keeps secret from his wife, or even a whole second family. Corie starts by checking him out by herself, but as her investigation widens, she pulls in her retired NYPD cop father, her former FBI colleagues, and even her best friend. But is she really investigating a criminal, or is she just creating a crazy story to add some excitement to her life? And if it is real, does she have the smarts and the training to outwit the criminal and get back to her new quiet life unharmed?
Susan Isaacs is back with Takes One to Know One. The veteran author of Compromising Positions, After All These Years, and Shining Through brings us another masterful story of interesting characters, complex story lines, and genuine human emotions.
I really enjoyed Takes One to Know One. It’s slower than the average suspense novel, focusing on Corie’s thoughts, feelings, and relationships. The story takes its time to develop, building slowly, staying grounded. Personally, although at times it felt like a little slow, I really enjoyed the journey of this novel, of Corie finding her place in a new world and figuring out how to express her whole self in a world that sometimes minimizes the skills, talents, and dreams of women.
Galleys for Takes One to Know One were provided by Grove Atlantic through NetGalley, with many thanks.