I love pulp fiction and turning it on it's head with humor and style this book hit the mark. I've never read any Cherry Ames or Nancy Drew stories but I feel confident that fans of those will really enjoy this story. ( )

Lesbianic satire?! Biting and hysterical. Highly recommended - especially for the initiated(whatever THAT means...). It's hard to keep track of what it spoofs when, but it's great for a laugh. ( )

Hilarious send-up of Cherry Ames, Nancy Drew and every lesbian Harlequin-type romance all rolled into one delightfully twisted package. I laughed all the way through it. ( )

Parody of Nancy Drew & Cherry Ames Nurse novels.

"Sometimes a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do."

Mabel Maney has become somewhat of an icon--albeit, an elusive one--in LGBT literature. But it is not because she is the next James Baldwin or Virginia Woolf. Instead, she is known for her queered parodies, which began with the publication of this: The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse, A Nancy Clue and Cherry Aimless Mystery . First written and bounded by hand in 1993 by the San Francisco State Graduate (who wrote her master's thesis on Nancy Drew), it sparked a long list of praise from the gay press (Instinct Magazine, for example) and more mainstream sources (such as the Los Angeles Reader).

Reading the introduction to this 2002 edition (the second edition), we can easily see why the accolades. Simple said, Maney has a "dashing" sense of humor that plays not only on parodying beloved children's series, but also tongue-in-cheek humor and campiness--for what can be more campy than an innocent nurse who suddenly finds herself involved in a case invovling missing nuns, naked lesbian photos, angry priests, and an on-the-run Nancy Clue, who happens to cruise the hottest all-women spots of California?

While the mystery itself is highly predictable, one does not read this for the thrill. Instead, it is Maney's use of words that captures her audience, forcing them to smile and grin on every page. While her characters are quite flat (for the most part), they are expertly drawn that way.

The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse is overall of fun and quick read, that cheer you up even after that bad book you've just read. ( )