Review: Secret Identity by Alex Segura

My husband and sons are huge comics geeks. I am not. But somehow I came across this title and thought it would be perfect as a Christmas gift. In fact, I've apparently thought it would be perfect for my husband two Christmases in a row. As I came into the house this year, pleased as punch with my discovery, I glanced down at his bookshelves, only to see this same book already there. I hid this year's copy and asked him about it. He said he has not yet read it but was looking forward to it. Crestfallen (and now needing another gift for my husband), I decided to read it myself so I could best determine which of my sons was getting the duplicate gift. This was completely out of my wheelhouse and I didn't have the insider comics knowledge or interest that I suspect elevates this novel.

Carmen Valdez grew up in Miami, loving comics. When she moves to New York City in 1975, she takes a job with Triumph Comics, a publisher several steps below Marvel and DC. She's the publisher/owner's assistant but what she'd really like to do is to write comics. But the industry, which seems to be fading out, is not welcoming to women and their perspectives. She is frustrated but she continues to try and break into writing despite her boss's constant dismissal of her scripts. So when Harvey, a mediocre writer at Triumph, comes to her and tells her he wants her help writing a script, she agrees, despite knowing that she can't admit her involvement with the book, if it even gets published. Carmen and Harvey, but mainly Carmen, create a female superhero named Claudia Calla, the Lynx. After Harvey turns the six scripts in without Carmen's name on them, he is murdered. So now Carmen needs to figure out how to reclaim her character, who turns out to be a runaway hit, who killed Harvey, and if she's now in danger too.

Segura obviously knows the comics industry and its history and he deftly weaves them into a story about much more than comics. Carmen is dealing with the misogyny of her chosen industry, the homophobia of the age, and the gritty reality of living in 1970s New York City. Her feelings about Harvey (he's a friend, he's a jerk, he's a friend, he's only a co-worker acquaintance, he's a friend, he's a double crosser, he's a friend, etc.) are completely inconsistent and change page to page depending on which feeling drives the story better. There are also several plot threads that come to great prominence and then just peter out. Illustrated pages from Lynx's comic book were sprinkled throughout the story but were distracting, not having enough connection to the plot of the story to make them valuable to the story, especially for a non-comic reader like me. I do think that my husband and the son who will be getting this pre-read copy for Christmas this year will enjoy the book more than I did.