Viviana Valentine Gets Her Man by Emily J Edwards (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

 

Title: Viviana Valentine Gets Her Man

Author: Emily J Edwards 

Publication: 8 November 2022

Format: Kindle eARC via Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley 

Amazon Description

Life as a secretary in New York just got tougher when Viviana Valentine’s boss goes M.I.A in this debut historical mystery, perfect for fans of Susan Elia MacNeal and Frances Brody.

New York City, 1950. Viviana Valentine is Girl Friday to the city’s top private investigator, Tommy Fortuna. The clients can be frustrating, and none more maddening than fabulously wealthy Tallmadge Blackstone, who demands Tommy tail his daughter, Tallulah, and find out why she won’t marry his business partner, a man forty years her senior. Sounds like an open-and-shut case for a P.I. known for busting up organized crime—but the next day, Viviana opens the office to find Tommy missing and a lifeless body on the floor.
 
The cops swoop in and Detective Jake Lawson issues a warrant for Tommy’s arrest. Desperate to clear Tommy’s name, Viviana takes on the Blackstone case herself. When she goes out for a night on the town with the heiress, she begins to learn the secrets behind Tallulah’s headline-grabbing life. Meanwhile, Lawson is itching to solve his murder case, and continues harassing Viviana for answers—until she’s the victim of a series of violent attacks.
 
But Tommy’s still missing, and Viviana is scared. As she digs into the dirty history of the Blackstone empire, she suddenly realizes the true danger at hand. Now, it’s up to her to find her missing boss and make sure he doesn’t turn up D.O.A.

 

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I love the old hard-boiled classic detective stories. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler take up a good deal of "actual shelf" at my house and Erle Stanley Gardner has a large chunk of real estate on my cloud. I'm already planning on a big lovefest for December in lieu of anything from NetGalley for at least one of the three. "Dashiell December?" "Merry Marlowe?" It'll probably come down to a coin toss.  

That being said, I was not expecting much out of this. 

Well, I was, but it wasn't really anything good. 

I was expecting fluff. I thought I would get maybe a third of the way through before giving up and hitting the sad little "I will not be giving feedback" link on NetGalley. 

By the time I was a third of the way through I was hooked and had already requested the second Viviana Valentine book on NetGalley. The second -- Viviana Valentine Goes Up The River -- is set for a May 2023 release and there is a very slim chance that I will be able to wait that long. I may not even wait until 2023. Luckily, I just sent it to my Kindle from my beloved (and overflowing) NetGalley shelf so I don't even really have to wait at all .... though I'm trying to tell myself that I at least have to finish the last two books needed for my Alphabet Soup Challenges before I can revisit Viv and Tommy and the rest.

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Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader