If anyone can segue a court-ordered house arrest into romance, it's an Elinor Lipman heroine. In Ms. Demeanor, Lipman's 16th book, Jane Morgan--39-year-old Manhattan attorney (suspended) and convicted perp (gross indecency)--finds that serving her 180-day sentence in her high-rise co-op presents surprising opportunities. Outrageous but credible plot twists and snappy dialogue guide an ill-advised rooftop tryst to a happily-ever-after conclusion.
A trifecta of "man, woman, mojitos" leads to rooftop "moonbathing" then--as the "prude" watching from across Seventh Avenue claims in a 911 call--to "putting on a show." A judge sentences Jane to home confinement for "gross indecency." Jane--supported emotionally and financially by her loving dermatologist twin sister, Jackleen--turns to creating "Skinutrition" recipes for Jackleen's website. After a kind doorman, pointing to his ankle, suggests Jane meet the man in 9C, she arrives at Perry Salisbury's door bearing brownies, wondering if "two ankle monitors in the same room [would] trigger acoustic feedback." The outcome of this meeting--Perry's "crime" at his art auction house was, lawyer Jane deems, "sweet"--is an agreement that Jane will cater dinners for non-cook Perry, a plan that soon evolves into dinners-plus-benefits. The satisfactions of Jane's burgeoning culinary TikTok followers and the budding romance beg for plot complications. Reliably, witty satirist Lipman (On Turpentine Lane; The View from Penthouse B; I Can't Complain) provides. When the "snitch" with the "911 trigger-happy finger" dies suddenly, a madcap scenario ensues with the implication of Jane by the snitch's "colorful love children" (who may lack legal immigration status). This snag, dispatched with hilarious élan, precedes a conclusion likely to prompt tears of joy. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.