Viviana Valentine and the Ticking Clock (A Girl Friday Mystery)
She calls him “ol’ Tommy boy.” He calls her Dollface. Viviana Valentine’s beau Tommy is hot news in New York City, so when they stumble into a murder on their way to a New Year’s Eve celebration, it’s not the corpse the newshounds are after, but the glamorous Tommy Fortuna himself.
Viv is a PI, a private investigator, and as the minutes tick away the last of 1950 and a million people cheer in ordinary life just a few blocks from her, Viv’s washing off a lot of blood and facing things: “It was 1951 and we had a murder to solve.”
Yes, the 1950s make lively history. Edwards handles the slang, the news, and the post-war optimism in this traditional PI mystery with flair. Viv’s secretary thinks the police detective already on the case is “pretty dreamy”; her roommate Dottie appreciates the two-carat engagement ring Viv is sporting. This third in the series focuses on tracking down criminals with many detours into ritzy hotels and high-end restaurants. Should Viv suspect Tommy might actually be wealthy? Funny what she can avoid knowing.
Remember what carbon paper was? How about matchbooks as a promotion for, say, an underground and illicit club? Or a Thermofax machine in the office?
Such distracting and delicious details abound, along with a bizarre kidnapping (what’s been taken? or who?), career criminals, wealthy investors with odd behavior, and chaos at Viviana’s boarding house. Soon this PI tale morphs into a friends-and-family puzzle mystery liberally laced with humor. The final revelations take place at an “enormous automat, the front doors chromed and as shiny as a temple.” After that, Viv has the scariest opportunity yet: meeting her mother-in-law to be.
