Raymond Chandler's mean streets were never like those traversed in this new satirical novel by the author of Shooting Elvis. Nina Zero, née Mary Alice Baker, is paroled after serving five years for blowing up LAX airport by mistake. Starting a new life for herself, she's going to earn two thousand dollars by marrying, so that her new English husband can obtain a green card. There's more: when members of a heavy-metal band called Death Row are electrocuted in a hotel hot tub, she sells pictures of their demise to a one-man photo agency and signs on as a paparazza. At last, she seems to have found her calling. But someone is killing L.A. paparazzi. As if that weren't enough, her husband's body is found beaten and stabbed. Properly enraged, Nina resolves to track down the killer herself. There's the expected unexpected ending, but half the fun is getting there in this noirish ramble across L.A.'s seedy underbelly, most notably Nina's deadpan narration ("Frank was one of those guys who could take a bite at the beginning of a sentence, chew through the middle and lunge for another bite without so much as a comma to separate mouthfuls"). Along the way Eversz manages to satirize rock groups, television, the glitterati and California correctional facilities, among other tempting targets. While the satirical overtones are omnipresent, the violence is a little too visceral to take lightly, and the overall effect a little too close to reality—particularly in the wake of September 11—for comfort. (Jan. 14)
