SUPER IN THE CITY

New York singleton’s overactive imagination lets loose when she becomes the superintendent of her apartment building.

Former Time Out New York books editor Uviller finds a wealth of material in the local environs explored in her feisty debut about a Greenwich Village native. At 27, Zephyr Zuckerman has already fled medical school and law school. She’s also recently broken up with homicide reporter Hayden Briggs, leaving her free to roam the city with the Sterling Girls, her posse of impossibly lovely, mildly neurotic friends. Returning home from a memorable party-crashing evening, Zephyr finds her super being led off in handcuffs. Parents and neighbors convince her to step in. “Zephy’s going to be the super!” her father proclaims. “I had to go make lemonade. Out of garbage,” thinks his horrified daughter. Surprisingly, impulsive Zephyr finds much to like about her new gig. Among the curiosities begging for her attention are the super’s mysterious apartment (complete with secretive film canisters and a hidden door), her friends’ romantic quandaries and one Gregory Samson, a soft-spoken pest-control agent whom Zephyr is soon determined to make her “sexterminator.” Before you know it, “Chambermaid Zephyr” has morphed into “Agent Zuckerman,” as the author attempts to tie together a tangled plot encompassing art theft, the Spanish mob and a hot-blooded Frenchwoman running a boudoir-based con right under Zephyr’s nose. The plot is overstuffed, and some of Uviller’s secondary characters, particularly the Sterling Girls, lack her heroine’s complexity. Fortunately, she makes up for these deficiencies with a polished lead character, an ear for snappy dialogue and a propulsive storytelling style.

Funny, enjoyable caper about a dirty job and the unlikely young woman who takes it on.