Is SUPER IN THE CITY, Daphne Uviller’s debut, really a mystery novel, as the front-cover copy slyly suggests? Well, not really. Judging from her narrative preference, it’s more a humorous story of a young woman in New York City, with bits of crime and mystery tossed in.
That’s bad news if you were expecting something like Lawrence Block’s BURGLAR novels, or the Dortmunder stories by the late Donald E. Westlake. It’s nothing like either of those, but it is well worth enjoying, anyway.
Zephyr Zuckerman is a 27-year-old New York City native, living in her parent’s brownstone apartment building in Greenwich Village. She doesn’t have much of a career to speak of, but she’s got a close group of girlfriends who occasionally enjoy crashing high-profile parties and helping themselves to the free food.
But all that changes one morning when James, the longtime building superintendent, is led away by the police in handcuffs. He’s been busted for embezzlement and no doubt bound for prison. But there are still repairs to make and tenants’ complaints to attend to. So Zephyr reluctantly agrees to her parents’ proposal to take over the position of super for the building.
While she struggles with all her new responsibilities, she also tries to resolve the problems of her love life. There’s her journalist boyfriend, in particular, who can’t make up his mind if he should stay or stay gone. And during one of his gone periods, Zephyr meets Gregory, the building’s exterminator, and is instantly attracted to him.
Then one afternoon, while she enlists Gregory’s help to fix her parents’ clothes dryer, they discover a hidden back stairway leading to some locked rooms. The passageway and the contents of the secret rooms cast further suspicions on former super James and a sultry, French tenant named Roxana.
Uviller obviously loves exploring Zephyr’s inner life. So most of the first-person narration follows her thoughts on all the false starts in her life, her observation of her friends and family, her shifting desires and frustrations, and her various, cascading fantasies. And Uviller’s prose style throughout is confident, funny, often sexy and wonderfully insightful.
When Uviller adds the mystery elements, however, things get uncertain. The scenes where Zephyr and Gregory discover James’ secret rooms become an opportunity for Zephyr to finally get Gregory alone. And whatever those locked rooms mean gets lost in the web of her love life and other distractions. When more details about James and Roxana’s criminal activities are revealed, especially in the last several chapters, the stylistic sparks are dampened and the events feel rushed and tentative.
Taken as a mystery novel, SUPER IN THE CITY is lopsided and weak. But as a character-driven novel about a young woman finding herself in a world of high expectations and low self-esteem, it’s an impressive delight. Guess we’ll have to wait for Uviller’s next novel to see which direction she decides to take, and if her publisher correctly decides how to promote it. —Alan Cranis
Related posts:
- Locked Rooms
- Big City, Bad Blood
- Trigger City
- Super-Detective Flip Book: Two Complete Novels
- Essential Super-Villain Team-Up: Vol. 1
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Thanks for this great review! I think the problem with marketing is simply that the book should be considered a caper rather than a mystery. I agree — it’s not that hard to see what’s coming down the pike, but it’s the journey that’s fun. Thanks again for giving it ink, or bytes, or… – DU