The Battle of the Hopeful Gen Z Apprentice & Her Brilliant Boomer Boss -- Book REVIEW of The World's Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant

So, a little about me. (Trust me, it'll all make sense soon.)

I devoured the entire Nancy Drew book series—more than once—when I was little. 

 

It followed, then, that sometimes one of my Barbie dolls got to act out being a detective; I was completely hooked on the idea.

 

Even now (years later!), whenever I read a mystery novel—or watch one in show/movie form—a little part of me is still right there in the detective’s shoes.

 

I’m hardly alone in my secret dreams of being a P.I., of course. 

 

For most of us, though, that’s all it remains... a fantasy we live out vicariously on the page or screen. 

 

But imagine, for a minute, what might’ve happened if you’d scrambled to make that dream a reality.

 

If, say, you finagled your way (possibly over-hyping your abilities a tiny bit) into an apprenticeship with not just a private investigator... but with a legendary one.

 

Well, then you might get something like the tale that unfolds in author Liza Tully’s deliciously-fun The World’s Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant.

 

 

Not long out of college, Olivia Blunt is getting nowhere fast in her nowhere job.

 

She’s an underpaid fact-checker, living with her actor boyfriend in a tiny Manhattan apartment, and she’s tired of all the headaches from staring at her computer screen all day.

 

Until one day—after watching an interview with Aubrey Merritt, the world-famous private detective—Olivia gets a harebrained idea: follow in Ms. Merritt’s illustrious footsteps!

 

It feels like fate when a few months later, she spots an ad for the detective’s assistant. She applies and eventually—somehow!—actually lands the job.

 

But what she didn’t count on was how very similar her daily tasks would be, to those of her previous job.

 

Exactly. The. Same.

 

Day in and day out, her boss has her parked in front of a computer doing research and answering the phone.

 

Never once does Merritt (as she prefers to be called) have her assistant accompany her out in the field... which means Olivia isn’t learning anything.

 

Nor does the stern, no-nonsense boss give her any praise or encouragement; there are precisely zero warm fuzzies at the office. 

 

Fate once more intervenes, however, when Olivia answers a call requesting the great detective’s services. 

 

She’s intrigued. A vibrant, successful, and happy woman—one Victoria Summersworth, heir to a prominent resort—fell from a balcony to her death on the night of her big 65th birthday bash. The local police ruled the tragedy a suicide... but one of the woman’s adult children insists it was murder. 

 

Olivia persuades Merritt to take the case... and Merritt tells her assistant to pack a bag. (Okay, it may have been more that the case is in Vermont and Merritt can’t drive... but Olivia won’t split hairs. The boss needs her!!)

 

What the two women find in Vermont is far more complex than they’d imagined, though. 

 

The surviving family—stepchildren, her children, and their partners—is a hotbed of jealousy and resentment. Everyone (aside from their client, Victoria’s daughter) seems more than happy to accept the police verdict... meaning none of them are exactly cooperative (or honest).

 

Worse, Olivia manages to bungle every task Merritt gives her... leaving both of them in serious doubt as to her continued employment.

 

Having nothing left to lose, Olivia decides to undertake a little clandestine investigating of her own... but with her unenviable track record, she’s just as likely to get herself dead.

 

 

The World’s Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant is, without doubt, an absolute hoot. (If the book title doesn’t clue you in, well, you’re not really paying attention, are you?)

 

But it’s also a smart, up-to-the-minute read, with its Battle-of-the-Generations vibe running throughout. Olivia, in her early twenties, is Camp Gen Z... whereas her boss—the woman she admires—is well into her sixties, and thus firmly in Camp Boomer. 

 

Which creates friction. A lotta friction.

 

Not only does author Tully not shy away from their differences in opinions, experiences, and ideas, though... she also doesn’t make light of them, not casting either woman as foolish, old-fashioned, or ill-informed. Instead, she lets them talk about how and why they feel as they do.

One feels certain that equality (in things such as pay, respect, and opportunities) should be a given... while the other has lived through the exact opposite of that, and knows that few things can be relied to be such absolutes, ever. 

 

The fact that each is somehow able to learn something from the other? To understand why their mindsets are so different? Is really cool to see.

 

If the flavor of NYC... and the allure of being an investigator (and a famous, brilliant one, at that)... OR, of a younger person, learning from the best... rocks your world, then The World’s Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant should absolutely zoom right to the top of your TBR list.

 

As for me, well... I’ll just be over here, impatiently awaiting the sequel.

~GlamKitty

 

[My sincere thanks to Berkley Publishing Group, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are, as always, entirely my own.]