Too Darn Hot

Faye Quick is a detective in noir 1940s' New York City, where lots of women do men's work because there's a war on. Faye's secretary, Birdie, is Laura Hicks's masterpiece here, played as a cross between The New Woman and Betty Boop; you can practically hear her chewing gum and buffing her nails. It's all great Runyonesque fun, with feisty Faye a sort of Humphrey Bogart in a sundress. Her client is pretty Claire Turner, whose soldier boyfriend, Charlie, is missing, but his is not the naked dead body Faye finds in Charlie's hotel room. Even if you solve the puzzle before Faye does, Hicks keeps the action sizzling to the end. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

April 3, 2006
Like Scoppettone's This Dame for Hire
(2005), which introduced Faye Quick, the semitough New York steno who turns private eye after her boss goes off to fight in WWII, this sequel vividly recreates 1943 Manhattan—the rumble of the subway train, the rattle of the taxi in a city not slowed down for a second by a war or an oppressive heat wave. Faye's voice is again pitch perfect, but the story isn't as strong as the earlier novel's. Claire Turner, a blonde beauty who works as a salesgirl at Wanamaker's department store, plays on Faye's sympathies to get her to agree to spend some of her time looking for Claire's missing GI boyfriend, Charlie Ladd. (Movie names dot every page: not only Turner and Ladd but folks called Widmark, Byington, Duff and Cummings have roles.) Of course, the too-good-to-be-true Charlie turns out to be just that, murders are committed both coolly and in hot blood, and all the while our very interesting Faye does a great imitation of the sort of dame Ida Lupino was born to play.

December 1, 2006
The scene is New York City in the 1940s. Claire Turner, a salesgirl whose soldier boyfriend Charlie Ladd is missing, asks Faye Quick, a wisecracking private eye, to find him. Faye goes to Charlie's hotel room and discovers a dead body stuffed in the closet. As Faye attempts to solve the mystery, she deals with an array of interesting characters: Claire's sister Louise, who claims Charlie raped her; Charlie's anti-Semitic, aristocratic father; Claire's dysfunctional family; and a wounded veteran who loves Claire. Faye sees through the lies and deceptions of these individuals and finds Charlie, who turns out to be the aggressor rather than the victim. Laura Hicks does a good reading job; some of her male characters sound alike, but she captures Faye's wisecracking, tough, and vulnerable character very well. Recommended for public libraries.Ilka Gordon, Park Synagogue Lib., Pepper Pike, OH

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