Redheaded Reviews: Not a Girl Detective by Susan Kandel

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 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)