Spygirl: True Adventures from My Life as a Private Eye

by Amy Gray and Amy Gray

Book Overview

"Harriet the Spy" meets Carrie Bradshaw in the true story of editorial assistant-cum-gumshoe girl Amy Gray's experiences in life, love, and busting bad guys in the Big Apple. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812971523
• ISBN13: 9780812971521
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Villard Books
• Length: 271 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

truely growing up new york

This is not a mystery, thriller or any other kind of genre. It's a coming-of-age story that happens to be about a PI, and my friends and I related to it completely. Even my boyfriend-who normally only reads historical non-fiction--stole it from me to read in bed and was constantly chuckling to himself and reading it aloud to me. Very surprising. The book encompasses a year in the life of a private investigator, and weaves material from her cases with her life-friends, loves, etc. It is funny, honest, hard when it needs to be, and delicate when appropriate. I would have liked more color on the cases, though. Otherwise, I was smitten. Please, please do a novel next! I'm on the waiting list...

Riotous fun

This is truly a delightful novel. It is original and helps fill a gap in literature for young women's truthful voices. Gray really gets inside the psyche of the curious, independent woman in New York on a quest for answers; whether in her personal or her professional life. Gray's hilarious account of her years as a P.I. and the ridiculously colorful characters kept me glued to my couch turning pages the whole way through. The narrative structure of this novel was fascinating and held together the various threads of the story that focuses mostly on Gray's current social life and current work projects. The images her prose evokes are crisp, vivid and bright. Amy also illustrates a pack of questionable men she keeps running into en route to finding a compatible boyfriend with light-hearted humor even as she reveals her disappointment in making yet another mistake in becoming involved. Her stories are funny, frightening and all too familiar to women of her generation. Gray deftly weaves snippets of her past that led to her present and does quick yet evocative sketches of many influences in her life. This novel is a lot of fun, superbly written and not to be missed.

CRACKED ME UP

Amy Gray is a great writer, but she excels at comedy. There are so many clever scenes--an arm wrestling scene at the PI office (amid rat traps and wiffle bats) another at an amateur strip party in New York, or at the annual office Halloween party where her co-workers have some unfortunate costumes... The section headings alone are worth the price of admission: Kicking Ass and Taking Names, Requiem for a Smoker, Choking the Chicken, Who's your Daddy? This girl can write funny, which is rare to find. Highly recommended if you have a sense of humor and a curiousity about the world of detectives--especially what they do after hours.

IT IS A WINNER OF A BOOK!

This book really has magical moments! There is lots to like - with wonderful humor, deftly drawn characters, the adventure of tracking the "bad guys," and most especially, the honesty and angst of the 20-something generation. The writing was amazing - I was sad to see it end (perhaps a sequel is in the works?). I agree with another reviewer who said that SPYGIRL has surprising depth. Gray is young, but the reader can see her learning and growing as the story plays out. Highly recommended!

Hilarious and Smart

Gray has written a very compelling first time book. I bought it on a monday and it was done by wednesday night. It's funny, exciting, romantic and smart. She has a real way with her characters, especially the Assman(!) Go Spygirrrl!