In this, her first novel, Isaacs touches on a variety of issues which are paramount to many contemporary women writers' works. Foremost among these is the theme of female autonomy and self-realization. The novel's spirited protagonist, Judith Singer, is a bright, intellectual woman who abandoned pursuit of a Ph.D. in American politics when she married, and now finds herself ten years later a bored, Long Island housewife. When she becomes involved in trying to solve a murder in her community, she encounters the steadfast opposition of her husband who, as the novel unfolds, seems less a tyrant than a man deeply troubled by his wife's choice of fulfillment. The detective aspect of the novel is therefore both a metaphor of the heroine's quest for fulfillment and autonomy, as well as the vehicle of this process.

Other typical "women's" themes include the right to sexual happiness...