Vera Kelly Is Not a Mystery

Starred review from June 8, 2020
Knecht’s excellent sequel to Who Is Vera Kelley? picks up with ex-CIA agent Vera in 1967 New York City, as she tries to solve a mystery in an era when only men are expected to do the job. Vera’s poetry professor girlfriend, Jane, announces she’s had enough of not feeling wanted, and leaves. Then Vera loses her editing job at a TV station after her boss finds out she’d been dating a woman. She decides to fall back on her old skills and becomes a private detective. When the Ibarra family asks Vera to find their nephew’s child, Félix, who was sent to New York from the Dominican Republic amid political unrest, Vera takes on the case. Meanwhile, Vera balances the emotional consequences of her breakup with a new love interest: the bartender at her favorite, oft-raided, bar. When Vera realizes the Ibarras aren’t who they say they are, her mission becomes a different one: find Félix and his real parents, reunite them, and throw the fake Ibarras off the scent. This leads her to the Dominican Republic, where the police mistake her for a spy. Knecht brilliantly captures Vera’s emotions, and shines with keen observations of the varied settings. This winning literary page-turner gives a strong sense of a smart, queer, and complex person navigating an unfriendly world.

Elisabeth Rodgers gives a low-voiced, pitch-perfect narration of this character-driven mystery set in the 1960s. Vera Kelly is going through a rough patch after losing her girlfriend and her job in the same week. She decides to open her own P.I. firm, and her first case involves the missing child of Dominican exiles. Vera's search leads her through the New York City foster care system to a glamorous estate in the Dominican Republic. Rodgers's voice sounds like it was transported right out of the 1960s; she captures all of Vera's brash determination and cool nonchalance. Her narration is by turns rough and silky, vulnerable and aloof as Vera attempts to put her life back together by solving a mystery and embarking on a new relationship. L.S. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine