Viviana Valentine Goes Up the River (A Girl Friday Mystery)
1950, New York: Viviana Valentine, partner to Tommy Fortuna, New York’s top private investigator, heads north to Tarrytown when wealthy scientist Buster Beacon asks the private eyes to investigate strange noises at his family mansion. Viviana arrives to find several people weekending at the mansion: elderly financial backers, a wealthy woman looking for love, several scientists, and a mysterious neighbor. During the first evening’s festivities, the neighbor becomes ill. As Viviana and her partner investigate, they find scientific laboratories, secret passages, a poisoned FBI agent, and the possibility of espionage and treason, as well as the aforementioned unearthly noises. No one is exactly who they seem. When the group becomes snowed in, who will be the next to die?
This lively mystery drew me in, despite a couple of glaring anachronisms early on; zip codes, as well as the title “Ms.,” were not around in 1950. However, the spritely pace and engaging characters overcame that initial bump in the road, and I wound up enjoying the book. The setting, a sort of country-house mystery with an overlay of mid-century science, proved intriguing. Viviana and Tommy are fully fleshed, likable investigators, and the other characters are well drawn. The solution to the mystery proved a bit unexpected. A fun read!
