Roberta Isleib hits ’em straight
By: Joan Ruddiman
Fall offers some of the best golfing conditions until falling leaves blanket the greens. The season, however, is bittersweet as cooler temperatures portend snow on the greens, bringing an early end to fairway fun.
If you can’t play golf, reading about the game is a pleasant diversion. Toss a clever mystery plot into the mix and you have an afternoon of entertainment that offers as much fun and with none of the stress of a round of golf.
With winter just around the bend, it is time to stock up on Roberta Isleib’s Cassandra Burdette Golf Mystery Series. Isleib and Cassie can attest that golf is murder!
Isleib knows the game and knows how to craft a mystery. She created Cassie, who she has taken from qualifying school to the U.S. Women’s Open over the five-book series. Isleib, who like most authors today hosts a flashy Web site, shares with her fans: "I am not Cassie Burdette. First of all, she’s a much better golfer than I."
Cassie took up the game at age seven. Isleib began golfing at close to 40 when a romantic interest encouraged her to play. Perhaps the closest to Roberta Isleib in the books is the character of Dr. Baxter, Cassie’s psychologist who keeps her mentally and emotionally in check. Dr. Isleib is a clinical psychologist who still maintains a small private psychotherapy practice. Her training, like Dr. Baxter’s, is mainly psychodynamic, which she explains, "means exploring how your family history shaped you and how you might be reacting to the world using old patterns that don’t fit the present."
Dr. Baxter indeed has his hands full with Cassie as she hauls a golf bag full of more than clubs, including a rocky relationship with her father and a tenuous romantic interest.
In each book, Cassie becomes entwined in a murder mystery that further challenges her ability to rise to the golf challenges at hand. In most cases, her good nature and concern for others draws her into family feuds, mean business deals and club politics that turn ugly.
"Six Strokes Under" (2002), the first in series from publisher Berkley Prime Crime, introduces Cassie who is pursuing a life-long dream to play on the LPGA Ladies Pro Golf Association tour. If that isn’t tough enough, she is a suspect in "murder by driver" and turns Nancy Drew to save her name.
"A Buried Lie" (2003), finds Cassie on New Jersey’s very own Bay Course at the Seaview Marriott Resort and Spa in Absecon across the bay from Atlantic City where she is competing in the ShopRite LPGA Classic. In a pro-am format, Cassie is paired with three pharmaceutical bigwigs. She likes her partner Erica, the lone woman in the company, but finds the men to be overbearing. When Erica turns up as a suicide victim, Cassie suspects really foul play and turns again into the girl detective.
In an article Isleib wrote for the summer issue of Golf for Women, she describes how she played a round in a pro-am contest on the Pines Course at Seaview to research her second Cassie Burdett mystery. Not only is the golfing venue wonderful, and the ShopRite Classic a big LPGA event, she notes, "How could Cassie help but find intrigue and trouble in the gambling capital of New Jersey?" And Atlantic City does play a big role in "Buried Lie."
This was my first Cassie Burdett mystery, given to me by my good golfing pal Kathy with whom I have shared many a happy round on the Bay Course. A Book Notes review published in 2003 now lives on Isleib’s Web site. The wonders of the Internet.
In "Putt to Death" (2004) Cassie takes a job (a temporary one, she prays), as a touring pro at a New England country club. Isleib tackles two issues that generate a lot of heated debate as Cassie tangles with gender politics at the club and environmental issues. When both the eco-friendly member and the woman member who advocated for equal tee times are murdered, one with Cassie’s bloody sand wedge next to the body, Cassie has to stick around to clear her name and clean up the mess.
Literally, this one comes from Isleib’s own battles as a member of a Connecticut golf club. She tells of her travails as the elected chair pro tem of the board, to the dismay of the good old boys in the club. The next year, she is named as the green department chair, a traditionally male appointment. Obviously not shy, Isleib pushes for the course to join the Audubon Sanctuary program, which causes one long-time member to fume, "I love wildlife. Just keep it off my fairways."
Fortunately, Isleib’s hassles in Connecticut made for fine plot fodder, yielding "Putt to Death."
Isleib the psychologist has fun with "Fairway to Heaven" (2005), as Cassie becomes embroiled in family relations lots of step-issues and boyfriend issues of her own. In a charity tournament, Cassie is paired with her first golf coach, her estranged father, and her on-again/off-again boyfriend Mike who is a PGA Tour pro. If that’s not enough, she is a bridesmaid in a wedding for an old friend whose father goes missing. Cassie, now with a reputation as a detective, can’t very well turn down her friend’s pleas for help.
The setting is the wonderful Pinehurst course in North Carolina where Isleib and her golfing husband enjoyed a round for research. (I like the way this woman operates!)
"Final Fore" (2006), sees Cassie preparing for the U.S. Women’s Open at Mt. Holyoke. And, yes, Isleib spent a week "sleeping on a lumpy mattress" in the dorm while she took in the sights and sounds of this high-powered event. Cassie is now into high-stakes competitive golf. When her rival a teenage golf phenom is poisoned, Cassie is again on the line to straighten out a murder mystery as she struggles to hit them straight.
Here’s the good news for mystery readers. Those who have no clue regarding birdies, bogies or such nonsense enjoy Isleib’s fast-paced plots and root for the likable Cassie.
But there is bad news as well. Isleib’s publisher has asked her to end the Cassie series and develop a new character one that doesn’t golf. Isleib wrote in the Golf for Women article that "it felt as if a friend has died."
But like the resilient Cassie, Isleib is not out of the game yet. Her new mystery will feature Dr. Rebecca Butterman, a psychologist and advice columnist.
Isleib writes, "Rebecca made cameo appearances in several of the golf mysteries and Cassie will return the favor. I owe it to her."
So golfers, find and read the Cassie Burdett series and savor them. For the pure-of-heart mystery lovers, Isleib’s Dr. Rebecca Butterman debuts March 2007 in "Deadly Advice." That’s just about when golfers will hit the links again so maybe we won’t miss the golf angle and can unwind from a round with this new mystery series.
Joan Ruddiman, Ed. D., is a teacher and friend of the Allentown Public Library.

