BookBrowse Reviews This Dame For Hire by Sandra Scoppettone

BookBrowse:

It's hard to dislike a book that ends with a playful hubba-hubba!. Mystery

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Faye Quick and Maisie Dobbs (see previous recommendation) are both female detectives at a time when detecting was firmly the province of men, but that's about all they have in common. They are products of their environment separated by a generation, a country and a war. While Maisie's personality was formed in service in pre-War England and on the battlefields of France, Faye is a scrappy 26-year-old, tough-talking, wisecracking former stenographer living and plying her trade in tough-talking, wisecracking 1940s Manhattan.

The reviewers are generally in favor of This Dame For Hire, the first in Scoppettone's new series, praising not just the character of Faye Quick but also how vividly Scoppettone portrays New York which "looks like old magazine and newspaper photographs come to life—not faded but enhanced by the passage of time" (PW).

"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!" - Booklist.

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in August 2005, and has been updated for the July 2006 edition. Click here to go to this issue.