A Little Trouble with the Facts

At first, "A Little Trouble with the Facts," seems to be a typical hard-boiled detective novel--and it is. The reporter/detective heroine, Valerie Vane, has the voice down pat as she moves through the decadent club scene, the high art gallery world, Bronx tenements, and even the bowels of the New York subway. But the voice softens over time because she's not only solving a crime but learning that there's more to her than her hard-edge surface lets on. She finds out who and what really matter and what kind of a person she really is.

No wonder Publisher's Weekly compared Siegal to Chandler. Not only is she a polished stylist who brings her various urban settings, high and low, to vivid life, she also manages to write a wickedly funny, entertaining novel with serious themes. This is one of the best novels I've read recently. It offers many discoveries, lots of surprises, plenty to think about when it's all over. I especially enjoyed Siegal's look into the world of graffiti artists. I'll definitely stay tuned for her next book. I just hate discovering a favorite writer who doesn't have a long backlist!

Fast, dynamic, slick and scintillating. Siegal will rivet you like a master welder, and entrance you like the angel who brings your dreams.

Perhaps it is a classic reaction formation to her still hippie parents but Sunburst Rhapsody Miller wants fame and fortune. She assumes that fortune will come once she becomes famous. Changing her name to Valerie Vane, she begins to gain local acclaim in New York City one celebrity gossip at a time (to the horror of her DNA pool). Soon she obtains work at the prominent Paper as a style section columnist reporting on the rich and famous. However when she becomes the story during one of her cocaine temper fits she is demoted to a dead end job working obituaries. The call challenged her write up re "Sue Side"; insisting that renowned graffiti artist Malcolm Wallace would never have jumped off the Fifty-ninth Street Bridge especially on the Queens side after taking out a mortgage and going to buy ice cream; besides who jumps into the East River to die. Taking advice from her unknown caller to research not depend on cop truisms, Val begins to investigate whether Malcolm took a swan dive with assistance; soon she begins to uncover official corruption that should bring her career back to life if she lives long enough. Taking the Hollywood glamour mysteries of Jackie Collins and bringing them to pre 9/11 Manhattan so that the shine is street gritty, Nina Siegal provides an enjoyable chick lit investigative tale. Val is fun to follow as her asides about life defined as gossip and rumor, newly found lost kin, fleeting almost fame, and Malcolm make for a delightful tale that is somewhat amateur sleuth in nature (though she is paid as a reporter). Fans will clamor for more Val Vane investigations. Harriet Klausner

I loved this book. Nothing like a "Noir" novel with a sassy, female protagonist! Book is set in several, interesting worlds, journalism, the arts and New York over-the-top club scenes. It's a page turner mystery, cleverly written. Couldn't have been better.