Mabel ManeyRezensionen

Super fun to read!

These parodies of Nancy Drew and and the Hardy Boys are just spot on.

Pretty, titian-haired detective Nancy Clue, known to all for her
keen sleuthing abilities, up-to-the-minute fashion sense, and
gracious finishing-school manners, kicked the right front tire of
her modern convertible in frustration and burst into tears.

If you ever read any of the pulps you'll love these books. As I kid I had many books of The Rover Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, and Tom Swift series, never had any ND or HB. But I just love the nostalgia factor along with the wicked twist Maney has for her characters and the laughs her descriptions and the characters inexplicable actions produce.

I love pulp fiction and turning it on it's head with humor and style this book hit the mark. I've never read any Cherry Ames or Nancy Drew stories but I feel confident that fans of those will really enjoy this story.

This is an adorable, light-hearted mystery where all the important characters are lesbians. It’s so cute and silly and gay, I love it. Despite the 1950s setting, it’s refreshingly lacking in homophobia - it never even comes up as a plot point, the closest thing is the way one of the butch girls in the gang keeps getting mistaken for a man.

In 1953, Ian Fleming wrote Casino Royale, creating British master spy James Bond. In the next 11 years, Fleming would write 14 books detailing the adventures of the suave and sexy international spy. In the 60’s, Clyde Allison (the pseudonym of William Henry Knoles) would publish 20 sexy parodies featuring agent 0008 in titles such as Sadisto Royale, For Your Sighs Only, and, my personal favorite, Platypussy. Although the Bond films have been parodied recently, no one has recently parodied the books. Until now. Mabel Maney, author of several girl detective parodies featuring Nancy Clue and the Hardly Boys, has turned her satiric pen on another icon, introducing us to Jane Bond, a hapless bookstore employee who just happens to be James Bond’s lesbian twin sister.

The book takes place in the 60’s, with appropriate cultural and fashion references. The gist of the story is that James Bond has lost his touch and been shipped off to a mental health facility to recover. However, he is also scheduled to receive a medal from the queen, so the loopy plot of convincing Jane to stand in for her brother is conceived. Along with this, the subplots include an all-girl spy ring, a plot to kidnap Queen Elizabeth and put King Edward back on the throne, and Jane’s budding romance with Bridget St. Claire, daughter of society doyenne Lady Emerald St. Claire and member of the aforementioned all-girl spy ring.

The characters are all great fun, from the hapless Agent Pumpernickel to the kindhearted but socially-challenged Lady Edwina Wooley-Booley. Menace is provided by Sir Niles Needlum, the grasping, casually brutal, totally incompetent Agent 008, and as in all James Bond books, the femme fatale Lydia Thorne. The plot is light and swift, and like all good spy thrillers, all of the varied subplots come together in a machine-gun rapid-fire ending.

The coolest thing about the book is how much you come to care about the characters. When reading a parody, character development isn’t usually what I’m looking for—I’m in it for the laughs. This book provides plenty of those, but also gives you reason to be concerned about the characters. You want Bridget and Jane to get together, and for Agent Pumpernickel to reach his retirement safely, and especially for Simon’s bookshop to survive. Although the situation is played for laughs the people aren’t, which added greatly to my enjoyment of the book.

Lesbianic satire?! Biting and hysterical. Highly recommended - especially for the initiated(whatever THAT means...). It's hard to keep track of what it spoofs when, but it's great for a laugh.

A funny mystery. Full of fun and mystery.

Hilarious send-up of Cherry Ames, Nancy Drew and every lesbian Harlequin-type romance all rolled into one delightfully twisted package. I laughed all the way through it.

Seems very slightly racier than the previous two Cherry Aimless / Nancy Clue books. Also, the first with male main characters as well as female. I expected more of them, given the subtitle as a Hardly Boys mystery.

Parody of Hardy Boys. Seguel to the Nancy Clue books.

Parody of Nancy Drew & Cherry Ames Nurse novels.

It’s a lesbian parody of Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, and the Hardy Boys. It sure did seem to have the style basically down pat.

"Sometimes a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do."

Mabel Maney has become somewhat of an icon--albeit, an elusive one--in LGBT literature. But it is not because she is the next James Baldwin or Virginia Woolf. Instead, she is known for her queered parodies, which began with the publication of this: The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse, A Nancy Clue and Cherry Aimless Mystery . First written and bounded by hand in 1993 by the San Francisco State Graduate (who wrote her master's thesis on Nancy Drew), it sparked a long list of praise from the gay press (Instinct Magazine, for example) and more mainstream sources (such as the Los Angeles Reader).

Reading the introduction to this 2002 edition (the second edition), we can easily see why the accolades. Simple said, Maney has a "dashing" sense of humor that plays not only on parodying beloved children's series, but also tongue-in-cheek humor and campiness--for what can be more campy than an innocent nurse who suddenly finds herself involved in a case invovling missing nuns, naked lesbian photos, angry priests, and an on-the-run Nancy Clue, who happens to cruise the hottest all-women spots of California?

While the mystery itself is highly predictable, one does not read this for the thrill. Instead, it is Maney's use of words that captures her audience, forcing them to smile and grin on every page. While her characters are quite flat (for the most part), they are expertly drawn that way.

The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse is overall of fun and quick read, that cheer you up even after that bad book you've just read.

Agent 007 has been institutionalized and N. needs to find a replacement quickly as the Queen wants to award him a medal. The only person who could possible fit the bill: his lesbian sister Jane. But Jane has problems of her own, having just split with her girlfriend who took her for almost everything she had. Plus, she doesn't know that her brother James is a secret agent. Told with much charm and tongue-in-cheek humor, Maney's parody of the James Bond series is a great read.

Sequel to "The case of the Not-so-Nice Nurse". Less Nancy even than the previous novel – if that's possible – and the Nancy in this one was far less sympathetic. Although the case was solved, I'm not sure whether there was a happy ending or not.½

Cherry Ames / Nancy Drew wholesome 1950s lesbian crossover. Fun, if you like that sort of thing, which I do.½

This time: less sex and more farce. Oh, so silly. Despite a handful of gaps in the author's grasp of British English, and several copyediting errors, I think I enjoyed this sequel more than its predecessor.

Jane Bond, lesbian twin sister of the famous spy, is recruited by her brother's boss to impersonate her currently invalid brother. The girls who sell Powder Puff cosmetics door-to-door via their pink scooters turn out themselves to be underground feminist spies. In turns farcical and sexy.½

Great fun, especially if you're familiar with Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. More swiftly plotted than "Not-So-Nice Nurse," too.

The parody is cute, but the story (like its characters) takes too much time to get from Point A to Point B. The title character also becomes more and more annoying with each demonstration of cluelessness.

Parody of James Bond