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Meet Faye Quick, a sassy secretary who keeps the home fires burning by reluctantly becoming a private investigator after her boss and agency owner, Woody Mason, joins the army. True to her name, Faye catches on quick, and is especially adept at solving crimes-notably when she stumbles (quite literally) over the body of a murdered woman. This accidental discovery not only forces Faye to keep the doors of the agency open during wartime, it keeps them swinging.Tags
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New York City, 1943. Almost anything in pants has gone to serve Uncle Sam in the war–including Woody Mason, the head of a detective agency in midtown Manhattan. Left to run the show is his secretary, Faye Quick. She’s got moxie–which she’ll need when she stumbles over a dead girl in the street and takes on her first murder case. The victim, Claudette West, was a student at NYU and the daughter of a Park Avenue family. Claudette’s father is convinced greed was the motive, and that Claudette’s working-class boyfriend, Richard Cotten, killed the girl because she threw him off the gravy train. Faye, however, isn’t so sure, not when she learns about all the other men Claudette was secretly seeing–from her lecherous show more literature professor to an apparent con artist. For Faye, there are more shocking surprises in store than turns and dips in the Coney Island Cyclone.
This was a solid story about Faye as a very straightforward and no-nonsense PI and how she goes around checking on everyone and everything involved with the victim. The feel of the 1940s came through with popular jargon of the 40s used throughout along with mentions of the war, the music and other things popular at the time. I thought Faye was likable, believable and persistent in finding out what happened. I liked the book and would read more by this author. show less
New York City, 1943. Almost anything in pants has gone to serve Uncle Sam in the war–including Woody Mason, the head of a detective agency in midtown Manhattan. Left to run the show is his secretary, Faye Quick. She’s got moxie–which she’ll need when she stumbles over a dead girl in the street and takes on her first murder case. The victim, Claudette West, was a student at NYU and the daughter of a Park Avenue family. Claudette’s father is convinced greed was the motive, and that Claudette’s working-class boyfriend, Richard Cotten, killed the girl because she threw him off the gravy train. Faye, however, isn’t so sure, not when she learns about all the other men Claudette was secretly seeing–from her lecherous show more literature professor to an apparent con artist. For Faye, there are more shocking surprises in store than turns and dips in the Coney Island Cyclone.
This was a solid story about Faye as a very straightforward and no-nonsense PI and how she goes around checking on everyone and everything involved with the victim. The feel of the 1940s came through with popular jargon of the 40s used throughout along with mentions of the war, the music and other things popular at the time. I thought Faye was likable, believable and persistent in finding out what happened. I liked the book and would read more by this author. show less
It's WWII and the secretary has to take over the Detective Agency. Faye talks like Sam Spade and she gets the job done by asking lots of questions. She's hired to find the murderer of a wealthy society woman while uncovering a phoney Rockefeller that the victim was using to keep her parents in the dark. She solves the crime with the help of her secretary, her next door neighbor, a friend who's a cop while keeping her gun on the shelf in the closet.
I really ended up liking this book. The mystery was good, the main character pulled me in, and I loved the historical tidbits here and there.
I just couldn't finish it, so maybe I shouldn't be writing a review. I wanted to like it, and I thought it had an interesting premise, but the dialog drove me insane. What was the author thinking?
1940's woman P.I. in New York during WWII.
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Author Information
24+ Works 2,359 Members
Sandra Scoppettone is a mystery writer. She was raised in South Orange, New Jersey. In the 1960s, Scoppettone collaborated with Louise Fitzhugh, on two books. She began writing her own young adult novels in the 1970s. Her book, Trying Hard to Hear You, was one of the first young adult novels to feature a lesbian character. Scoppettone's 1976 show more novel, The Late Great Me, dealt with teenage alcoholism and was made into an Emmy winning television special. Another book, Playing Murder, was nominated for a Edgar Award. Scoppettone's first three mysteries for adults were written under the pseudonym Jack Early. Her book, Everything You Have Is Mine sparked an ongoing series. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- This Dame for Hire
- Original publication date
- 2005-06-28
- People/Characters
- Faye Quick; Richard Cotten; Woody Mason; Claudette West; Jeanne Darnell
- Important places
- New York, New York, USA; Greenwich Village, New York, New York, USA; Manhattan, New York, New York, USA
- Important events
- World War II
- First words
- At ten-fifteen in the P.M. I was walking along Bleecker Street near Thompson, going home after putting on the feedbag with my friend Jeanne Darnell.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 139
- Popularity
- 229,697
- Reviews
- 5
- Rating
- (3.42)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 2
