Missing Reels

September 29, 2014
Film writer Nehme harnesses her talents and expansive knowledge of film in her debut novel. Set in 1980s New York City, the novel follows young Ceinwen Reilly, who is working in a vintage clothing store, dressing like a ’40s film star, and obsessing over older films. While on the job, she encounters the affable Matthew, an Englishman and professor of mathematics at NYU. He introduces her to the quirky yet endearing world of silent film aficianados, and she soon discovers that her neighbor, Miriam Gibson, knew Jean Harlow, and may have had no small part to play in a long-lost silent film.
Together, Ceinwen and Matthew navigate the ins and outs of the film buff world,
as well as their budding relationship.
Nehme snares the reader with dry wit, portraits of film stars of the past, and dynamic, unconventional protagonists. Her film expertise is evident, and may convince readers to seek out films of a bygone era.

Starred review from October 1, 2014
Rumors of a lost silent film send a quirky heroine and her bemused boyfriend on a delightful escapade. It may be tough to make ends meet on her shopgirl's paycheck from Vintage Visions, but Ceinwen Reilly embraces a poor-yet-glamorous approach to life, dressing in retro fashions and watching classic movies every night. But the balance is upset when Matthew Hill, a charming British mathematician, and his snooty girlfriend, Anna, waltz into the store. Ceinwen's dismay at Anna's arrogance turns to horror when she buys the earrings Ceinwen had set aside for herself. Less than a week later, Matthew is back in the shop, inviting Ceinwen to dinner, and a vintage-film-fueled romance ensues. Maybe it's the moonlight, or maybe it's the movies, but Ceinwen becomes convinced that Miriam, her downstairs neighbor, was part of the silent-film industry. Trouble is, Miriam isn't talking. Soon enough, Ceinwen has turned amateur detective, dragging Matthew along as Nick to her Nora Charles. GQ's 2008 Film Blogger of the Year, Nehme seamlessly weaves film titles, trivia and technical lore into her debut novel. Her pacing is exhilarating, racing Ceinwen and Matthew (well, mostly Ceinwen) from an obscure film preservation society (run by a curator stern enough to frighten even the man secretly in love with her) to a vintage flicks screening club to a rather dodgy collector's apartment. An array of fabulous minor characters pops up along the way. It's a screwball comedy wedded to a gothic novel: Anna, Ceinwen's rival for Matthew's affections, is, of course, Italian; Matthew himself is Catholic; and the missing film is a classic of gothic fiction. Through it all, Ceinwen and Matthew patter at a speed Katherine Hepburn would admire. Simply grand; this tale begs to be filmed.

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October 15, 2014
In the late 1980s fast-talking heroine Ceinwen Reilly relocates from Mississippi to New York City, where she can indulge nightly in her passion, classic cinema, at the city's revival houses. When fellow cinephile Matthew breezes into Ceinwen's life, it is not long before the meet-cute pair is trading silent-movie trivia and arguing about the merits of Claudette Colbert versus Lana Turner. The sparring couple convince themselves that the downstairs neighbor is a fading silent film star in the vein of Gloria Swanson and cast themselves in their own private film noir in order to track down the reels of her long-lost film masterpiece. The amateur gumshoes quickly find themselves immersed in a subculture of quirky film enthusiasts housing aging reels in basements, university archives, and private clubs across the city. With breakneck, back-and-forth dialogue that recalls such movie classics as His Girl Friday and The Philadelphia Story, this debut novel by prominent film blogger Nehme is a joyful insider tale of cinematic obsession and a celebration of the ways in which fandom brings us closer to one another.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)