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KILLING PAPARAZZI
by Robert M. Eversz
St. Martin's Minotaur, January 2002
310 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0312289022


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

What would be the first thing you'd do after spending 5 years in prison? Go buy some new clothes? Get drunk? Go back to life in Smallville, USA? Not Nina Zero, accidental terrorist who earlier blew up part of LAX. No, instead she's planning her wedding. It's off to Las Vegas to hook up with Gabriel Burns, a man from the UK who she's never met before. He gets a green card out of the deal, and she gets $2,000, with which she buys an old Cadillac Eldorado. Against all odds, Gabe and Nina find there is a mutual attraction. Both also have a mutual interest in photography. Gabe is a paparazzo, and Nina used to work for a children's photographer. Neither of them is prime relationship material, and they end up going their separate ways. Having learned a bit about the paparazzi life, Nina undertakes some assignments on her own. She's even lucky enough to scoop the competition when a rock group is killed in a hotel hot tub.

The luck stops there. Her "husband" has shot some photos of a wild party which ends up with a woman and a dog having sex. Various luminaries and politicos are not very pleased with the idea of seeing these photos on the front pages of the tabloids, and Gabe ends up murdered as someone attempts to obtain the negatives. Nina surprises even herself by her feelings about Gabe's death and becomes involved in trying to uncover the perpetrator. A second paparazzo is murdered in a similar way to Gabe, as well as a prostitute Nina has befriended. When Nina is targeted as the next victim, all hell breaks loose. She does not go lightly into that car trunk.

Nina is a great character whose main quality is that she is driven by a deep and abiding rage. At times she is a vulnerable and poignant figure; at others, she is a deeply disturbed and lethal lady. She is definitely a very unique individual. As she says, "My eyes had a naturally honest shine. I fooled everybody, including myself....I'd always been a good liar, even when I thought I was telling the truth."

The first book in this series, Shooting Elvis, gives an excellent introduction to Nina. I love the humor; I love the attitude; I love the noir elements of both of these books. Eversz really pulls off something different in this series which has a satirical tone heavily laced with doses of reality and clever witticisms.

And the ending, oh my, I can't decide what it means and if Nina will be around for a third adventure. I will be distraught if is she is not, because I've grown to care about this character very much.

Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, March 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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