This Dame for Hire

Starred review from May 23, 2005
An original idea—a female PI working on her own in 1943—and an unusually imaginative portrait of a New York City coping, surviving, even thriving during WWII lift the first of a new suspense series from Scoppettone (Gonna Take a Homicidal Journey
). Faye Quick makes a tough and touching heroine, with a voice that just cries out for an actress like Ida Lupino to bring her to cinematic life. She starts as a secretary, learns everything her sleazy but charming boss knows about being a detective, then assumes charge of the agency after her employer is drafted. "Even though I looked
like any 26-year-old gal ankling round New York City in '43, there was one main difference between me and the rest of the broads," Faye tells us. "Show me another Jane who did my job and I'd eat my hat." This lively, slightly mocking tone continues at perfect pitch, as Quick finds the dead body of a missing young woman on a snowy street, then is hired by the victim's parents to catch the killer. There are echoes of Chandler and Hammett in the distance, but the plot offers some fresh surprises. Best of all, Quick's 1943 New York looks like old magazine and newspaper photographs come to life—not faded but enhanced by the passage of time. Agent, Charlotte Sheedy
.

Starred review from July 15, 2005
Scoppettone's new series immerses its readers in World War II -era Manhattan, complete with period idiom, dress, and stereotypes. In some ways typical of the women entering the work force at the time, Faye Quick, secretary-turned-gumshoe (when her boss is drafted), handles her new-found responsibilities with panache. Having literally tripped over the body of a murdered woman of snobbish connection, Faye's later asked to find the killer. The heiress apparently had an unsuitable fiancé , then a fake Rockefeller boyfriend, then became pregnant. Faye's upfront attitude, interrogation techniques, and smoking and drinking habits cast her as the quintessential private dick -a fascinating new heroine to be watched. Scoppettone, author of the Lauren Laurano series ("Everything You Have Is Mine"), lives on Long Island, NY.

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2005
Fresh from her series featuring New York PI Lauren Laurano, the veteran crime scribe introduces a delightful new protagonist, Faye Quick, who also prowls Manhattan in the gumshoe game. But Faye's first mystery unfolds in 1943, as a vibrant-but-jittery Big Apple copes with World War II, and detectives' secretaries sometimes have to take over agencies when their bosses head to the front lines. When Faye trips to her first murder case--by tripping over a young woman's body on a Greenwich Village sidewalk--she must contend with a ration book's worth of shady suspects while keeping the victim's overbearing father at bay. Smart and sassy Faye proves up to the task as she diligently ties off loose ends--only rarely taking a break to sample heavenly lemon meringue pie or cut a rug at the USO with the boys on leave. Although many readers will finger the culprit before Faye does, Scoppettone delivers a satisfying plot about love gone wrong and a large cast of engaging characters. And it's hard to dislike a book that ends with a playful "Hubba--hubba!"(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)