Sonderbooks Book Review of Not a Girl Detective

Reviewed October 6, 2005.
William Morrow (HarperCollins), New York, 2005. 294 pages.
Available at Sembach Library (MCN F KAN).

Cece Caruso lives in Los Angeles and writes biographies of mystery writers. Her current subject is Carolyn Keene, a writer who didn’t actually exist. Researching the different authors who used the pseudonym of Carolyn Keene introduces Cece to some interesting characters and brings her to a Nancy Drew fan convention in Palm Springs to deliver the keynote address.

Then a body turns up in the house that Cece and her friends are borrowing. The dead man had shown Cece a nude painting of Grace Horton, the woman who posed for the covers of the Nancy Drew books. Why was he killed? And where is the painting now?

This book didn’t really hook me, but it was a diverting detective story. I enjoyed the references to Nancy Drew, because I did put in some time reading them as a kid. I didn’t think she really gave us enough clues to solve the mystery on our own, but the denouement would have fit exactly right in a Nancy Drew book.

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Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

****Not a Girl Detective*

by Susan Kandel