Nica of Los Angeles

by Sue Perry

Overview

When rookie private eye Nica takes on a mysterious case, she enters a world of multiple dimensions called Frames, where buildings and lawn chairs can be sentient, a stray cat has great powers, books can be killers, and clouds can be spies. At home, Nica solves missing person cases; in the larger reality of the Frames, she gets swept into an escalating battle with stakes that could not be higher.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781503212909
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	11/13/2014
Series:	Frames
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

... Concert stage, dark except for a deep blue spotlight. Singer drops to one knee and his narration evolves from murmur to rant. "This is the story of a man who got what he wanted but he lost what he had. He got what he wanted but he lost what he had. He got -" ...

It goes on forever. It's mesmerizing. Uncomfortable. Confessional.

Pretty sure this memory is from the time I saw James Brown, decades ago, but the lost identity of the singer isn't the point.

I've spent my life gazing across some fence or other, admiring greener grass over yonder. I've acted on so many impulses to jump the fence. No complaints, but it has sure taken me a long time to appreciate where I'm standing right now. And nowadays that blue spotlight chant fills my head whenever I contemplate a new jump.

Sometimes I jump back.

I was a low-budget television producer until I wrote a psychological thriller, "Was It A Rat I Saw", which Bantam-Doubleday-Dell published in hardcover in 1992. Soon after that I became the mother of twins, jumped into graduate school, and became a disaster scientist. I dabbled in academia, government research, and consulting.

I stopped writing fiction for nearly two decades, until I noticed how much I missed it. I resumed writing novels with the literary fiction "Scar Jewelry" about a family with secrets that started in the era of Los Angeles punk and persist for decades; then began the speculative detective quartet FRAMES, with "Nica of Los Angeles" and "Nica of the New Yorks". Also in progress is a nine novella series, the young adult paranormal horror romance, "DDsE".

Funny. Back in the day, I had a single book idea at a time. Now I'm flooded with them, can't keep up with them, though I write just about every day.

I live in southern California. I had to leave for five years to confirm this is where I belong. I live with multiple cats, comfortably close to my twins and granddaughter. Like my life paths, my friends and family are all over the damn place. I like to visit them, spend time at the ocean, explore cities, and go out to hear live music.

Editorial Reviews

2015-07-21
In this first installment of a planned series, Perry (Was It a Rat I Saw?, 2013) blurs genre lines, combining a hard-boiled detective story with urban fantasy. Veronica Static, known to most people as Nica, is a Los Angeles native embarking on a new enterprise as a private detective. Despite her lack of experience, credentials, or license, she manages to acquire three separate cases in one afternoon: a creepy, strung-out couple searching for a duffel bag; a pair of concerned godparents looking for their missing teenage niece; and a wild, ethereal couple, Anya and Anwyl, who simply want Nica to accompany them to a mysterious meeting. As she pursues each of her investigations, the three plot threads begin to overlap. When Nica goes with Anya and Anwyl, she's dragged into the world of Frames, which are essentially alternate, coexisting universes. She's soon tasked with helping solve a dispute that, according to Anwyl, threatens all the free Frames. The first of her Frame visits results in her introduction to the local Watts Towers landmarks, which turn out to be sentient. Along with a substitute janitor, Hernandez, she sets out to observe areas where refugees from other Frames wander into her own and determine what imminent threat they might pose. Like any good noir story, the narrative is told from a first-person perspective, and Nica is a chatty narrator with an irreverent, self-deprecating sense of humor. Having a female detective in this genre is a refreshing change from the usual, and the conversational tone of the writing makes it all easily digestible. The fantasy elements are well thought out, though they occasionally overshadow the story's mystery elements. Perry also has a flair for detailed, unique similes: "When he saw me, he reacted with one of his giant smiles that…lit his eyes like a flashbulb light." A fun, fast-paced novel suitable for readers who appreciate grit, sarcasm, mystery, and dimension-hopping.

Kirkus Reviews