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(More customer reviews)Cici McNair weaves her memoir through the deep south of Mississippi and the streets of New York City. After traveling the world and trying her hand at a variety of careers, Cici decides to become a private investigator. Cici soon learns that becoming a P.I., especially a female one, is not as easy as she first thought. When the charismatic Vinny Pardo in New York City finally gives her a chance, for six dollars an hour, Cici is officially on her way. Discovering that this industry is primarily made up of retired homicide detectives and men, Cici learns the ropes and rules when being put into action almost immediately. Trailing adulteresses and breaking up counterfeit designer purse rings in New York's Chinatown, Cici begins to thrive in her new role and gains respect in the industry and on the streets.
When she returns to her small hometown deep in Mississippi to be with her mother, she realizes that being a P.I. down South is massively different then working in the big city. While uncovering cases, Cici begins to uncover her past. Her career continues to flourish and with every new case and position, Cici peels away at her own exterior. In doing so, she lets her past all flow out little by little as her guard comes down. The reader is let into Cici's private life and a new viewpoint of the narrator is revealed. McNair feeds tidbits and anecdotes about herself while sitting in cars at stakeouts and her secrets and character come out in a slow and steady pace that McNair seems to feel comfortable with. Prior to this, little is known about Cici, the revelations make it easier to determine what is going on in her head as she speaks. By opening up as the book unfolds, a face and personal story forms for the before faceless, unseen P.I.
McNair is a great storyteller. The memoir is full of humor, action, suspense, and emotional moments, particularly when she describes her overbearing and unlovable father. McNair's cast of characters throughout the memoir and her life are a motley crew and McNair details their quirks and personalities with precision. Her conversational style puts the reader right in the action, on the stakeouts, in the office, and into Cici's life.
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Detectives Don't Wear Seat Belts: True Adventures of a Female P.I.Growing up in Mississippi, Cici McNair was always more the tomboy her mother supported than the Southern belle her father demanded. She escaped her suffocating upbringing the first chance she had to travel the world. Whether working at the Vatican in Rome or consorting with a gunrunner in Haiti, she lived a life of international adventure. When Cici finds herself in New York, divorced, broke, and fashionably starving to death in a Madison Avenue apartment, she impulsively decides to become a private detective.But, as Cici soon learns, the world of P.I.s is tight-knit and made up almost exclusively of former law enforcement officers. By nature, they are a highly suspicious group and are especially wary of a newcomer with an untraceable past. Diligently working her way through the Yellow Pages, doggedly pursuing the slightest lead, Cici is finally hired by a private investigator willing to take a chance. The next day she's working side by side with a pair of seasoned detectives and a skip tracer who is scary to meet but like silk on the phone. She quickly realizes she'll need all her energy and wits to succeed in this new world.Being a private investigator is as exciting and liberating as Cici ever dreamed, from creating a false identity on the spot on her first case in the field to surviving adrenaline-rushing car chases. Working with law enforcement, she goes undercover, dealing with the ruthless Born to Kill gang in Chinatown and the Middle Eastern counterfeiters west of Broadway. A detailed account of the hidden world and real-life cases of a P.I., this action-packed memoir is as entertaining as any detective novel you've ever read. (2009)
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