Customer Reviews

Zero to the Bone: A Nina Zero Novel (Nina Zero Novels)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read a review of this book in some publication, and as it sounded like the sort of thing I might like I requested it from my local library. While I waited for it to become available, I pulled out a different Nina Zero novel (Burning Garbo) and read that. I realized that I liked the author's writing so much that I went back to the beginning, found all of the Nina Zero novels and read the series start to finish (Zero to the Bone being the latest.) They were all well worth a read.

If you like mystery/crime fiction with strong female protagonists you will like Nina. Her life as a kid was a very tough one. It has not gotten easier as an adult. She is a papparaza who repeatedly finds herself embroiled in various crimes and misdemeanors as part of her job. That's all I'll give away. You need to read it yourself. She is an engaging character and I consider Eversz a very fine discovery,indeed. I'll be anxiously awaiting his next Nina Zero book.

Nina Zero is an artist-excon whose violent child hood has turned her into a woman who uses violence to solve her problems. The lack of impulse control seems hereditary as her father and her niece's lack of foresight plummet her into as much trouble as her own ill-considered decisions. While Nina serves the cause of truth in her role as a scandal rag photographer, she is unscrupulous in her methods.

Despite this Nina is a sympathetic character who one wishes would stay out of trouble. Unfortunately her proclivity for unprotected sex and assaulting people with weapons makes her prone to trouble.

The backdrop for Nina's escapades is the art scene and porn industry in Los Angeles. Eversz prose is superior; but he gets a little flamboyant in plot creation.

"Zero to the Bone" was my introduction to Mary Alice Baker a.k.a. Nina Zero, the savvy, sexy, complex protagonist of author Robert Eversz's mystery series, ("Shooting Elvis," Digging James Dean"). Ms Zero, in this her fifth outing, is a paparazzi for LA's ignominious tabloid, The Scandal Times, and an ex-con out on parole. She solves murder cases as a hobby. Unfortunately, as with many series novels, there are numerous references to the protagonist's past. In "Zero to the Bone," the author alludes to so many incidents in Nina's earlier life, from prior works, that even though he includes some background information, I really felt left out - like I should go back and read books one through four to thoroughly understand the heroine and this particular plot. I enjoyed Nina as a character, (we bonded), but not the storyline. However, Mr. Eversz has my attention and I am now curious enough to read more Nina novels, but that's not the point...right? "Zero to the Bones" should stand alone, unless the reader is informed otherwise. I do not think it fulfills its promise.

Our story opens with Nina's debut as an artiste. She obviously has talent and is showing her very original photographs at the upscale Leonora Price Gallery in Santa Monica. The photos are "staged tableaux carefully composed to look culled from the pages of the National Enquirer" - in other words, arty Hollywood pulp! Her two main models, blonde, wholesome looking Christine, and Nephthys, a kind of "punk Barbara Stanwyck type," are scheduled to accompany her to the opening, along with her trusty bodyguard The Rott, a toothless but formidable Rottweiler, and teenage niece Cassie. A plus - the crowd likes the work. Even her parole officer appreciates it. A few sales are made, and a potential romance surfaces in the form of handsome Sean Tyler. Frank, her cohort and editor-in-chief at the Scandal rag introduces them. THE minus - Christine, a friend as well as Nina's model, is a no show...and she promised to attend this important event.

The evening turns into a nightmare when Nina receives an unmarked DVD which turns out to be a snuff film. Christine is the victim, definitely identifiable by the unique Betty Boop tattoo on her shoulder. Shortly afterward, the model's body turns up in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Parole rules forbid sleuthing. They also prohibit Nina's burgeoning association with hunky Sean, who turns out to be a LAPD detective. But rules have never stood in our girl's way and she is determined to find out who murdered her friend. Her investigation takes her to Hollywood's seamiest areas to question the scum who dwell there.

Along with the mystery and associated complications, Nina's abusive father surfaces and details about her dysfunctional family emerge. "His beatings taught me discipline, how to walk quietly and be silent, how to tune into the moods of your opponent and hit him before he hits you or run before he strikes. Above all, he taught me how to watch. I'm a photographer because of him, because of my fear of him."

I was interested in Nina and various other characters to keep reading until the end - not a bad experience. I do get the feel that if I study up on her past through the earlier books in the series, I will appreciate this one more. So, if you are a Nina Zero fan already, you will probably enjoy "Zero To The Bone." If you haven't met her yet, try book number one first!
JANA

I enjoyed Eversz's first two rather intense noir mystery novels a great deal, but I worried whether extending them into a branded series ("A Nina Zero Novel," the jacket says) might bode ill for the quality of his writing. I'm pleased to say I was wrong. This fifth outing continues the psychological exploration of Nina Zero, Los Angeles paparazza and parolee (manslaughter, for the details of which you need to read the series from the beginning), who used to be plain Mary Ann Baker, nice girl in angora sweaters. Her abusive father, the death of her mother, and the murder of her prostitute sister, however, plus her stay in prison, have turned her into a very different sort of person. This time she gets caught up in a very ugly string of rapes when one of her photo models is strangled. Meanwhile, her juvenile delinquent niece, now fifteen, comes to visit and then to stay, but Nina underestimates the kid's abilities. She also becomes unwilling involved with a homicide cop, and the eventual outcome of that is left ambiguous after the novel's bloody conclusion. Eversz always does a terrific job of blending exploration of the very dark side of L.A. with Nina's still-evolving personality and her relationships with her journalistic partner, her toothless Rottweiler, and her father. The city and its film community are major players in each book, too. The author certainly doesn't crank them out -- the first novel in this series of five was published in 1996 -- but I'm glad he's taking the time to keep them from becoming routine.

Ex-con Nina Zero a freelance photographer for the tabloid newspaper the Scandal Times, is realizing a dream by having a showing of her photographs in a respectable gallery. The model she used in the photographs never shows up but Nina thinks Christine is just going to be fashionably late. A CD sent to the newspaper that she never viewed turns out to be a snuff film and her co-worker Frank who watched it brings it to the showing for Nina to see.

The woman who was killed has a tattoo of Betty Boop on her left shoulder just like the Christine has. A hiker stumbles over Christine's body in the Santa Monica Mountains. Both Nina and Frank decide to follow the story. Nina because she cares and would like to find the killer and Frank because he thinks he can gain much mileage from the murder which has all the ingredients for a sensational story including the darkest side of S&M, where one is almost to the point of death. From the dark world that Christine inhabited and enjoyed, the investigation takes them to the corridors of the Hollywood elite where everyone has a price except for Nina.

Robert Eversz is a dark gritty urban noir thriller writer who imbues his characters with the full spectrum of human emotions and reflects that back to the reader who sees them in a disturbing light. The author brings every emotion out of the audience from joy to sorrow and everything in between. Yet this stark novel has its light moments involving Nina's dog Rott and its moving moments (Nina's father trying to reconnect with her). ZERO TO THE BONE is in a class by itself.

Harriet Klausner