This was an interesting twist on the amateur sleuth -- a psychologist who writes an advice column. While the writing was fine, and the mystery was well-paced, I thought the protagonist was more than a little annoying. Her advice was obvious and way too pat to make me feel she was a deep and insightful therapist. And I saw the "whodunnit" coming a mile away. All the same, I will seek out more by this author because I enjoyed the twists and turns.

Dr. Rebecca Butterman is used to helping people - she's a clinical psychologist and the author of an on-line advice column, so when Madeline, her next door neighbor is found dead from an apparent suicide, Rebecca wonders if she could have done something to help her. When Madeline's mother insists it couldn't be suicide, Rebecca agrees to look into the death. Rebecca soon realizes that Madeline was not all she seemed to be and as she investigates the on-line dating world for a writing assignment, she realizes the two are linked. The more she looks into both cases, the more she puts herself into danger, danger she may not escape from.

"Deadly Advice" is a well written and well plotted mystery. Rebecca is a nicely done, complex heroine, recently divorced and just starting to get her life back together. She is not perfect and her own personal therapy sessions help develop her character. While her advice column is interesting to read about, as were her attempts at on-line dating, what I liked best about the book were the details about her home life - her cooking, her taking in Madeline's cat, and her neighbors and the condo meetings they had. Rebecca's neighbors - especially Mts. Dunbarton, Peter Morgan, and Babette Fnster - are all well done. The mystery itself is well written and well plotted with plenty of red herrings and readers will have a hard time figuring out who the killer is. While author Roberta Isleib flirts with the almost standard mystery plot device of a romance between Rebecca and Detective Jack Meigs, she adds a welcome wrinkle to that formula. And, while the book seems on the surface to be a cozy mystery, it's a bit too gritty to fit that definition.

"Deadly Advice" is well done.

Deadly Advice by Roberta Isleib is a fast, page turning read. The protagonist is Dr. Rebecca Butterman who is a psychologist. She also writes an online advise column. Don't expect to read a story about a psychologist who has all the answers. There is so much more to Rebecca. Moving into the condo community after the divorce from her husband, Rebecca leads a busy life. When her neighbor next door is found dead, Rebecca is shocked and also feels guilty for not being friendlier and getting to know the woman who died, Madeline, better.

Madeline's mother asks Rebecca if she will help in finding out what happened to Madeline. The police are claiming suicide, Rebecca is not so sure. She begins her journey to find out who Madeline really was and enters the world of internet dating.

The author weaves an intricate story of deception and how events in ones life may affect them. My only problem with this book was there were too many psychological comments that could have been left out of a mystery novel. I recommend this book. I do not consider it a cozy but a unique mystery .

Wow! As an ardent mystery reader, GUPPY mystery writer, AND a Pyschotherapist, I loved this new series. I stumbled onto the first, Deadly Advice and then grabbed the next one. Rebecca rings true as a therapist who has relationship problems, both present and past. The writing is excellant and, while the plot has been done before, I didn't guess 'who done it' until the villian was revealed. And I usually see it coming. I can not wait for the next one. Thanks Roberta.

Author Roberta Isleib is a psychologist as is her heroine Rebecca Butterman in the mystery novel Deadly Advice. Dr. Butterman is also an advice columnist. This is the first in the Advice Column mystery series. The storyline has Rebecca in a quandary over her neighbor Madeline's suicide. As a psychologist, Rebecca feels guilty (even though she wasn't well acquainted with Madeline) because she didn't see the suicide coming. When Madeline's seeming frail mother tells Rebecca she doesn't believe her daughter committed suicide, Rebecca finds herself drawn into an investigation.

Everywhere she looks, Rebecca finds contradictory evidence. Her neighbors don't agree on who had been seen coming and going from Madeline's condo. The police declare the death a suicide and tell her not to be involved with a closed case. Yet Rebecca learns that they are still actively investigating the case. Madeline's brothers try to talk Rebecca out of searching for more clues. Family secrets cloud the issues. Rebecca finds a secret blog that shows another, darker side of Madeline and reveals her involvement in questionable singles' activities. It seems she loved to kiss and tell.

Add all this to an assignment from her editors to look into the singles' dating scene, and Rebecca finds herself in some interesting and somewhat dangerous places. Just getting over a divorce, Rebecca knows that this is the last thing she wants to do, but she can use the assignment as a guise to further her investigation of Madeline's life and death. The ensuing events involve both comedy and peril, and situations where Rebecca finds she doesn't know whose motives to trust.

At first, I found the story slow-moving, but I continued to read because I wanted to know how what came next. I concluded that the story wasn't slow but rather intricately crafted--a mystery that remained a mystery until the end. The plot had subtle twists and turns that hold one's interest.

Isleib portrays her main character as a skilled and compassionate professional who is, like all of us, human and flawed, dealing with the baggage of a recent divorce and a not-so-great childhood, and actually in therapy herself. Rebecca is a believable character, not a perfect cardboard caricature nor a bumbling incompetent. According to Isleib, this was a conscious aim: "...I have the chance to dream up psychologist characters who can help solve mysteries without stumbling too hard over their own personal issues, crossing ethical boundaries, or imploding with self-importance." When asked how her own profession influenced her writing, Isleib said "Believe it or not, the work of the detective in a mystery has quite a bit in common with long-term psychotherapy. You start with a problem, then follow the threads, looking for clues, and gradually fill in the big picture." (from author's website)

What is a natural progression for Isleib translates into a quite enjoyable read for mystery lovers.

by Susan Ideus
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

I must admit, as a teen, I'm usually not into books with a main character over 30. And I'm also not used to all the talk of marriage and cheating and such and such, however, the one thing I did enjoy was the amazing twist at the end which saved this novel for me. It was a good ending, and an unexpected one. However, it doesn't quite save this novel from getting over 3 stars. Maybe this book is just not my cup of tea, I like murder mysteries, I just don't like all the excess stuff that was added to this novel...I believe that it's because this novel is aimed at older and more mature audiences. So read if you can relate, or if you're just into mature fiction.

Roberta Isleib has begun another wonderful mystery series with Deadly Advice. I was a fan of Isleib's Cassie Burdette mystery series, and have found her new series featuring Rebecca Butterman as a clinical psychologist/amateur detective even more compelling. The plot is a page-turner, involving an investigation into the mysterious suicide-that-might-not-be-a-suicide of one of Butterman's neighbors. Even more important, Butterman is a bright, insightful, compassionate narrator, who draws the reader into her need to investigate and into her struggles with her own issues as a result of a painful divorce and a traumatic childhood (the latter issue is revealed in the final pages, and I hope will be further explored in future installments of the series). Isleib, a practicing clinical psychologist, layers into her story fascinating insights into the workings of the human psyche through Butterman's own clinical practice, through an advice column she writes, as well as through the complexities of the characters directly involved in the main plot. I am a veteran mystery reader and, as a result, often correctly predict the identity of the perpetrator. In this case, I was both surprised and satisfied (there had been clues and the perpetrator's identity made sense). I highly recommend Deadly Advice and I look forward to reading Isleib's next book in this very promising series.

Deadly Advice is the first in a new series by Roberta Isleib featuring Dr. Rebecca Butterman, psychologist and advice columnist. Recovering from her recent divorce, Rebecca returns to her recently purchased condo on the Connecticut shore to find police crawling all over her neighborhood. Startled, she approaches them to find out that her next-door neighbor, Madeline, is dead, apparently by her own hand. Rebecca can't believe that she missed the signs, despite not knowing her neighbor well beyond an acquaintance. When Madeline's mother Isabel approaches Rebecca to care for Madeline's cat, Spencer, she also asks Rebecca to look at Madeline's diary for signs of depression. But will her investigative instincts cause her to ignore her own advice?


Rebecca is trying to pull the pieces of her life together after finding her fellow psychologist husband in their bed with a young redhead. She's moved to a water-view condo in her hometown, is continuing with her own clinical psychology practice, and is writing an advice column for Bloom! under the pseudonym Dr. Aster. Her questions about her neighbor, Madeline, seem to coincide with her editor's desire for a column series about the current dating scene when she finds that Madeline had recently been attending the speed dating scene through Fast Connections.

With a little help from her close friends and her sister, Rebecca is able to wend her way through the speed-dating scene and the clues to find answers to the questions concerning Madeline and her evident blog addiction (blog=web log). Amidst the dating questions, websites, and emails, the condo association is in an uproar over the death in their neighborhood, and calling for more security measures - expensive security measures. Rebecca is working to see what all of it has in common before anyone discovers that Madeline's suicide may have been murder, but the police have beaten her to it - she hopes. When another neighbor is attacked, the investigation speeds up - but is it fast enough?

This is a great new series for those who like books with a theme, and Dr. Butterman - Rebecca - is a wonderful, sympathetic character who is able to admit her own culpabilities while helping others. She has a great support cast of friends and co-workers, as well as her new cat Spencer.

I look forward to Isleib's new series and would recommend it for anyone who wants a quick break from reality for a good read.

I probably would've enjoyed this book more without all the psychological talk, but being that the main character is a psychologist, I can understand where it came from.

But for a psychologist, Rebecca just came across as very cold and insensitive to me. I really couldn't bring myself to warm up to her, especially when she continued to stick her nose into something that everyone told her not to and that she, herself, swore she was getting out of.

With a very predictable culprit, I wasn't impressed enough to give it more than 3 stars. I hope the next installment picks up a bit.

Dr. Rebecca Butterman is a psychologist who writes an advice column on the side. The column is intended for mature women having problems with ex-husbands, ex-boyfriends, current husbands and/or boyfriends, teenage children, etc. When an immediate neighbor turns up dead, she is drawn into the case. Was it suicide or murder?

Rebecca pokes around in things, and discovers some hidden truths about the women and some others. Along the way you meet some of Rebecca's friends, neighbors, family, her ex-husband, and an assortment of other individuals, including some men from the dating scene. Be careful of first impressions.

Rebecca has been asked to write a column about the dating scene. Her editor offers $2 a word. Her "research" has a two-fold purpose - obtaining material for the column, and obtaining information about her dead neighbor. The suspects are many, but the resolution of the case will be a surprise.

I met the author at a booksigning at Lorelei Books in Vicksburg. She is psychologist in Connecticut who knows what she is writing about. One can wonder how much material comes from her own cases. You will get a sprinkling of wisdom and advice scattered through the novel as a bonus.

Rebecca Butterman's post divorced life is finally coming to a peaceful point. That is until her neighbor appears to have committed suicide and the editor of her advice column wants her to try and spice it up with a foray into online dating. Throw in a somewhat attractive but cranky police detective and you have an interesting start to a new series. This book is different than most cozies, Isleibs background as a psychologist makes this book read more like a psychology textbook than a typical mystery.

When psychologist Rebecca Butterman arrives home one evening she finds a squadron of police cars parked outside her condo. Her neighbor Madeline, it seems, has committed suicide. Yet Madeline's mother isn't convinced that her vibrant daughter was suicidal, and persuades Rebecca to use her knowledge of psychology to investigate. In this way the unassuming psychologist (who also happens to write an advice column) finds herself involved in a mystery that is increasingly perilous. Madeline's online life comes eventually to light in the form of two blogs and an online dating venture, revealing startling aspects of her personality and crucial information that will lead to a surprising conclusion.

Rebecca is an avid cook so food plays a significant role in this story, both as a way for Rebecca to work through tensions (nothing fights stress like the smell of bread baking in the oven) and as a conversation starter. As a foodblogger myself, I enjoyed how tea, cakes and cookies were so often used to break through people's defenses, uncovering important clues in the process. The underlying mystery behind Madeline's death is disturbing once revealed and Rebecca gets herself into situations that are truly frightening, but I was right there with her, hoping she would make it through. At times I wished the action had moved more quickly, but the exciting finale made the lead up seem worth it. I only hope that, in the future, Isleib includes some of Rebecca's recipes at the end of the novel. :)