The idea behind this book is irresistible . . . so much so it's a small wonder that nobody has tried it before. It's 1950, and the street-smart, tough-talking "girl Friday" of a down-market New York private eye has to turn detective herself when a seemingly straightforward case blows up, a lifeless body turns up in their Hell's Kitchen office, and the cops start seeing her boss as the prime suspect. Any detective story fan can see the possibilities: Kinsey Millhone, V. I. Warshawski, or Kat Colorado in mid-century drag . . . the kind of smart, sassy character that would have been played by Jean Arthur or Barbara Stanwyk in the 1940s, or Kathleen Turner or Karen Allen in the 1980s. New York City, at the height of its postwar glamour, would make an endlessly fascinating background.

The execution is another matter.

"Wisecracking private eye" is a distinct kind of character voice . . . so is "mid-century New York working girl" . . . so is "rapid-fire office banter between co-workers." They all have distinct rhythms, distinct word choices, and distinct ways of using dialogue to establish characters and relationships between them. There are dozens of brilliant examples (in print, in film, on television) of all three, and many of them are among the stone-cold classics of their respective genres. The characters in those stories, speaking with those voices, don't sound like real people . . . they sound like idealized versions of real people: witty, wise, sardonic, and clever all at once. Walter Burns and Hildy Johnson . . . Maddie Hayes and David Addison . . . Spenser and Hawk . . . Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin . . . 007 and Miss Moneypenny . . . Amos Walker and whoever he's talking to.

The characters in Viviana Valentine Gets Her Man don't sound like that (though they're clearly intended to). Nor do they sound like real people (let alone real post-war New Yorkers). Every time someone opens their mouth, the dialogue just clangs, like a genre pastiche written by somebody who skimmed a couple of examples of the genre once, rather than immersing themselves in its conventions and figuring out how (and why) they work.

Attempts to establish the time and place clang just as hard. The descriptive passages are simultaneously over-detailed and under-specified: lots of unnecessary adjectives, adverbs, and extraneous clauses . . . virtually no details that underscore what it's like to live in New York in 1950, or that show us things that Our Heroine takes for granted (because she lives in that world) but that would be startling to modern readers. World War II, during which all the major characters would have been adults, seems weirdly absent from their lives. Viv is 31, at a time when the average age of first marriage was 20 for women and 23 for men, but nobody, not even her busybody Russian landlady, thinks this is odd.

I really, really wanted to lose myself in the story and the world, but every second paragraph yanked me out of it. Maybe you'll love it, but I couldn't make it past Chapter 2. ( )

It is June 1950 in New York with the heat beating down and the smell of over ripe garbage in the air. Viviana Valentine, who left her home in rural Pennsylvania at the age of 16 for the adventure of the big city, has been secretary to P.I. Tommy Fortuna for the past 15 or so years. Of course, Tommy calls her Dollface. Tommy rarely has high class clients but maybe his luck is changing with a new client, millionaire diamond merchant and railroad owner Tallmadge Blackstone. Blackstone’s 18-year-old daughter, the beautiful Tallulah (aka Tally), is the paparazzi’s delight. Blackstone has decreed that Tally marry his business partner who is more than 3 times her age and he wants Tommy to follow her to make sure she isn’t sneaking out with other boys.
Tally, unobtrusively followed by Tommy, unexpectedly shows up at an engagement party that Viviana is attending that night. The next morning, however, Tommy doesn’t show up for work and there’s a bludgeoned, lifeless man lying on the floor of his office. Viviana has no recourse but to call the police, Detective Lawson showing up with his two deputies, O’Malley and Leary. Lawson and Tommy have a history and not so good a one at that. So, Lawson is chomping at the bit to arrest Tommy, who is nowhere to be found.
As the days pass and no Tommy, Viviana realizes that finding Tommy and whoever conked the guy in his office will fall on her shoulders. She recruits the denizens of the Mrs. K’s Girls-Only boarding house where she lives: Dottie a teacher, Betty a nurse and Phyllis a model. It’s not a spoiler if I say there is a big reveal, along the lines of Agatha Christie, at the end of the book. It’s a mystery and mysteries get solved.
There is so much more to this book than the plot. Edwards describes the mood and soul of various neighborhoods of New York, Gramercy Park, Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea. She has a great cast of characters, including Mrs. K her landlord, the police, the rich entitled and the every day people. Viviana is a scrappy, determined woman who isn’t afraid to give what she gets, especially from handsy Detective Lawson.
As I said it the beginning, it’s a humorous loving tribute to the Philip Marlows and Sam Spades of the world. It harkens back to the day when Life magazine was on everyone’s coffee table, when women wore girdles and Ipana toothpaste was in their medicine cabinets…for those of us old enough to remember. Even the cover is reminiscent of the pulp mysteries of the 40s and 50s.
One reviewer said, “This firecracker of a series opener will leave readers ready for more Viv!” Fans of Mabel Seeley and Mignon G. Eberhart, early authors of books with female sleuths, will enjoy this. For me, I’m going to check out Mabel Seeley and Mignon Eberhart. ( )

The audiobook narrator captures the character of a smart-talking young lady in 1950s New York City perfectly. The writer inserts details of the timer period to set the atmosphere. But the pace of the book is rather slow and the solving of the mysteries is barely satisfying. Viviana is surrounded by many side characters - in her boarding house and on the police force. Hopefully, in the next installment, the author can focus on a more compelling case and the working relationship between Viv and Tommy which, in this book, is only revealed through Viv's flashbacks. ( )

When Girl Friday Viviana Valentine's boss Tommy Fortuna goes missing, it is up to Viv to keep his private investigator business going and deal with a troublesome client. Millionaire Tallmadge Blackstone has hired Tommy to follow his eighteen-year-old daughter Tallulah and figure out why she doesn't want to marry his 57-year-old partner Webber Harrington-Whitley. Doesn't seem like a tough case to solve!

But as Viv follows and hangs out with Tallulah, she learns a lot about her and her family. Viv is also dodging an ex named Sandy who got a little too handsy and doesn't seem to have gotten the message that Viv was finished with him. After finding a gravely injured man in Tommy's office and being attacked a couple of times herself, Viv has a lot of incentive to solve the crime especially as Detective Jake Lawson seems to want to pin it all on her boss Tommy.

The story was filled with 1950s slang, fashion, and mores. It was an engaging and entertaining mystery with a great setting and wonderful characters. Viviana Valentine is one smart cookie, and I look forward to reading more of her adventures. ( )

historical-fiction, historical-research, mystery, NYC, 1950s, private-investigators, first-in-series, verbal-humor, law-enforcement, friendship****

Set in a seedy section of NYC in 1950, this is a sly bit of fun masquerading as a hard-boiled mystery.
Ms Valentine works as a general dogsbody for a private investigator until he disappears and she takes over the latest case plus finding out what happened to her boss before the NYPD does. I thisnk it's a great first in series and expect the next one to be even better! Very entertaining!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from the Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )