Burning Garbo

Nina Zero is not your typical mystery serial heroine. She's recently been released from prison after serving time for voluntary manslaughter, a crime she admits to, though she feels she should have gotten off. She has no contact with her family, can't get a regular job, so she uses her talents the only way she knows how...as a paparazzi. She's changed her name, her hair color, everything in an attempt to leave the past well behind her. Her latest assignment for The Scandal Times is sure to hurt her more than help.

Angela Doubleday was once a star of the silver screen, until a stalker died in her arms. Now, for the tenth anniversary of her Garbo-like seclusion, The Scandal Times would like to shoot the first pictures anyone has taken of the recluse since that fateful night. Nina gets some shots...including one that shatters her camera. As she sits looking down at Doubleday's house, a man who she mistakes for a bodyguard finds her and, when she refuses to give up her camera, shoots right through the lens. She gets away with a headache and a few scratches, and wakes up to find the house she was watching in flames. The arson investigator, for various reasons, decides that whether Nina did it or not -- he says that she did it to photograph the results -- she's the one he's pinning it on. Now Nina needs to solve the arson -- and, when a body is found, murder -- before she finds herself back behind bars.

Despite her tough as nails stand alone image, she has a rather nice support group. First there's her parole officer, who is even tougher than Nina; a tabloid reporter; and my favorite, a "rottie" named Baby. Baby is a really fun addition to her team...she meets him shortly after the fire, when she goes back to her car. He climbs in and refuses to budge, a loving, if toothless dog who, in the tradition of all the best dogs, becomes her best friend. I also enjoyed her relationship with the ex-policeman who used to be Angela Doubleday's bodyguard. Ben doesn't seem to mind her snarky outlook, and gives as good as he takes. Arlanda, Doubleday's niece, is one of the people who helps the most, wanting the right person to pay for her aunt's death, she not only gives Nina a doorway into the investigation, but she's a really sweet character. All these people help, in their own way, solve the crime, but they also solve another mystery. Each of them add a perspective that peels away a little of Nina Zero for us, allowing us to see her more clearly.

This is an especially good thing. Like I said, Nina is not your typical heroine. She's funny...she isn't afraid to wise crack, even when she would be smarter to hold her tongue, and she's very pleasant to be around. Smart, wounded enough to have some depth, funny.

This book goes down like warm tea and honey. It's one of those easy, hard to put down reads that passes an evening quickly and pleasurably. I realize that this makes the book sound both like a cozy mystery, which it certainly is not. Eversz writes with a keen wit and quick pacing, and that, combined with the fact that Nina is just a really attractive character is what makes this book work. Now I want to read the first two books of this series, Shooting Elvis and Killing Paparazzi .