I finally broke down and bought a Kahr CM9. I have never been a fan of the no external safety, striker-fired type of pistol....but I wanted a quality "pocket-sized" 9mm....and finally just went with the CM9 (hoping that it would work out).
I must say that, it has been easier and more pleasant than I expected. One, the little pistol is ridiculously accurate (my FIRST magazine, standing/ off-hand at a distance of 12 yards, produced a group a bit smaller than 2.5"). Two, the trigger was much easier to master than I expected. I usually shoot any pistol (new to me) to the right and low....but not the CM9. I was dead-on, right from the first magazine. Third, recoil, even with relatively stout SD loads, was rather mild - not unpleasant at all.
To be fair, I must mention the feeding problems I did have with the pistol. The first round, though only from a fully loaded magazine, would nose-dive and jam against the feed ramp. Every other round fed just fine. I finally traced the problem to an over-long magazine spring. Removing 2 coils from the 6 rounder springs fixed the problem. The 7-round mags were even worse - 3 or 4 coils needed to be removed from their springs. Surprisingly, Kahr doesn't seem to have caught on to this, as of yet.
Anyway, I certainly am in no position to say that the CM9 is "the best". I'm sure that there are others available that are equally good, or even better. But, it seems to work for me - and was (and is) a pleasant surprise.