Not a Girl Detective

As a Nancy Drew fan myself, it was fun to pick up this book about an amateur detective whose whole life seemed centered around the girl detective. At first it seemed as though it would just be a gimmick that got a little tired, but I have to say, I was surprised at how well everything held together. Also, unlike other books with amateur detectives in them, I absolutely believed every step of the way. Cece, the main character, did not know everything about detecting; in fact, she did some pretty dumb things. The good part about that was that she knew they were dumb -- she was just a loss for anything better to do. Which, incidentally, I found a lot more buyable than amateurs who seem to be experts despite the fact that they have no show more background whatsoever. The fact that she was hilarious certainly didn't hurt. I definitely enjoyed this and will be looking forward to other books in the series. show less

Cece Caruso writes books about mystery writers for a living. Her last book was about Earl Stanley Gardner who wrote the Perry Mason books. Now she is tackling the Nancy Drew books and the people behind the Carolyn Keene name who wrote them. There is a Nancy Drew convention being held in Palm Springs which is close to her home in L.A. and they have asked her to speak there.

Cece meets Edgar Edwards when she delivers a Nancy Drew book to him as a favor for her bookseller

friends. He lets her into his morbid home and shows her his pristine collection of first edition blue Nancy Drews. Later they would change things in those early books when they were reprinted. Russell Tandy did the artist pictures for the covers from the first one until show more 1949 when he left. But Edward has something of a surprise in store for Cece. Grace Horton was the model for the books and there was not much to find about her in her research. However, Edward has a picture of her naked done by Tandy.

When he finds out she is going to Palm Springs for the conference he offers her his key to his house there for her to stay there. Cece decides to make it a girlfriend's weekend and invites her two best friends, Lael, a pastry chef with four kids and a roving eye, and Bridget, a fashion shop owner involved with her employee Andrew. Cece herself who is involved with a cop named Gambino who in the last book told her he loved her but she doesn't believe him because she has been hurt before.

When she gets to the conference the coordinator and head of the Chums, the Nancy Drew fan club that is holding the conference, Clarissa, informs her that she is being bumped to a later time due to the fact that Edgar Edwards is presenting something to the group. Clarissa's daughter Nancy shows up unwillingly. Earlier in the week, Clarissa had had Cece look for her daughter and Cece had searched her car for some clue as to where she was and she had found a slide picture of the Tandy Grace Horton naked picture in her car.

The day of the talks, Clarissa informs her that Edgar isn't giving his talk and she is to go on in his stead. Later that day she noticed that Jake, Edgar's lover and roommate and someone else, probably Edgar had been staying in the master bedroom. After enjoying some time in the pool, Cece goes around to the side of the house and discovers Edgar's dead body shot in the head with a .22. The police realize that the women are not serious suspects. But Jake certainly is.

When Cece is out walking she runs into Andrew who waylays her and tells her that Jake is an old friend of his and that he didn't do it and that he needs her help to clear his name. She goes with Andrew to his house where Jake is hiding and they talk and she agrees to investigate on her own and try to find out who really did it.

There are plenty of suspects such as Mitchell Honey who lives and works for Edwards. Was he jealous of Jake and Edward or did he not want Edward's estate going to Jake? Then there's Clarissa who it turns out that Grace Horton was her mother. She likely would not have wanted that painting to have gotten out. Nancy might have killed him to protect her mother. Then there's the art dealer Asher Farrell who might have wanted the painting for himself which is now missing.

This book is a quirky mystery novel. Cece wears vintage clothing that she buys at garage sales, Goodwill, and boutiques. She is very good at researching and digging for the truth. She's also pretty good at getting herself in sticky situations with the bad guy or gal which causes Gambino to tell her he doesn't want to have to rescue her so stay out of trouble, which she doesn't. I really like the character of Cece. She is a strong woman who knows her own mind and has a unique way of figuring things out. Lael and Bridget are also interesting characters. Lael is all earthy and hippyish while Bridget is all queenish and is tough as nails. Both help out Cece in any way they can. This was a great book and I give it four out of five stars.

Quotes

Nancy [Drew] was everything I wasn’t. Brave. Forthright. Not Italian. Best of all, she didn’t have a mother. Her life was a Freudian fantasy come true. Just a girl, her father, and a housekeeper.

-Susan Kandel (Not a Girl Detective p 28)

If you have to lie, lie to people who are rushing. They will not pursue it. They may not even be listening to you.

-Susan Kandel (Not a Girl Detective p 131)

It was hard to imagine that two thousand years ago, Palm Springs’s first residents, the ancestors of today’s Agua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians, had enjoyed a rich ceremonial life in the absence of thirty-four places to purchase a smoothie.

-Susan Kandel (Not a Girl Detective p 241) show less

I had two older sisters and a troupe of New England based aunts. So my reading matter as a kid was sometimes the books that they had read and left laying around.

Including the many Nancy Drew books written by the immortal (and non existent) Carolyn Keane.

So when I see a new comic murder mystery that calls itself Not a Girl Detective and the heroine has done her research on the canon and the (many) authors, I thought I would be in for a good run.

CeCe Caruso is a Los Angelena, with a taste for high fashion and a hobby of writing books about fictional detectives. Her latest book is about Nancy Drew and so she winds up speaking at a convention of Nancy Drew "chums" and getting dragged into a complex murder mystery involving a book show more collector, an artists model, and much much trivia about Nancy Drew and her creators.

But CeCe is more than a little bit of a ditz, and the endless trivia about Nancy and the Syndicate eventually wears thin. And the endless snark really wears out its welcome.

There is even a hidden staircase, and a clue in an attic, if such things float your boat.

If you get the giggles from a girl saying "You can't think I'm guilty my bikini is Dolce and Gabbana" - then this book might be your cup of tea. Turned out it wasn't mine show less

The title caught my attention when I saw this at the library. The title and the cover made me laugh. I had never read anything by this author and wanted to give it a try. I'm glad I did. It was a very funny book with the balance of a murder mystery thrown in. And who doesn't love the idea of adults having a Nancy Drew club, right? I can't wait to read the first book in the Cece Caruso series.

I was very excited about this particular book when I picked it up at the library. I was a huge Nancy Drew fan as a child, and I own almost all of the original fifty-six. So, this particular book about a woman, who always wanted to be Nancy Drew, who is writing a book about the author, Carolyn Keene, and who runs into her own murder mystery, jumped out at me. However though the writing was excellent and I could not stop laughing, the book turned into more of a weird sort of romance. This lesbian couple was doing this, and this guy is possibly bisexual. That's not really my sort of thing. The language was also atrocious. Rating - 2 stars due to bad language and not focusing on the plot

The second Cece Caruso mystery is almost as much fun as the first. It takes place in the world of Nancy Drew fandom and does a good job of respecting those fans while also poking gentle fun at the most extreme elements as well.

Very clever plot idea! I just discovered this series by accident, because this title lured me in due to the fact that I am a long-time Nancy Drew fan.

I look forward to going back and reading the first in the series, because the main characters really are quite funny and interesting. I hope there are more books like this to come from Kandel in the future.