I picked Super in the City to review because it sounded like an interesting combination of chick lit and mystery, two of my favorite genres. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me as either.

Zephyr Zuckerman lives just a few floors from her parents in their New York City brownstone. It’s a good thing she has free rent, as Zephyr just can’t figure out what she wants to do. She’s apparently quite bright, although I really didn’t see evidence of it. Zephyr quit medical school after one year. She then spent a year applying to law schools. Once accepted, she got as far as packing her things in her car and closing the doors.

Zephyr clearly doesn’t spend her time looking for a job. In fact, I’m not sure what she does most of the time, other than crash parties with some of the “Sterling Girls,” a group of friends with whom she went to school. However, unlike Zephyr, all of the other Sterling Girls have successful careers.

Aside from her friends, Zephyr’s personal life is a mess. She broke up with her ex- two years ago, but still looks for him everywhere she goes in New York. Why? I don’t know. The guy stood her up repeatedly. When he did show up, they had sex, but he drank beer during the entire process.

When the police drag away her building’s super, her parents decide that Zephyr should take the job. I don’t have a clue why since Zephyr clearly has no skills for the job. While cleaning out the old super’s apartment, she discovers all kinds of things indicating that the man had a rather interesting secret life going on. She also meets Gregory, the building’s hunky exterminator (or her “sexterminator,” as Zephyr eventually labels him). Everyone is convinced that Gregory is really a policeman since he doesn’t look like an exterminator.

I know this is all supposed to be funny, but it just didn’t come across that way to me. Instead, it felt as if the author spent too much time trying to make the reader laugh and too little developing a coherent plot. I never warmed up to Zephyr and Gregory wasn’t around enough for me to develop any feelings for him.

Throughout most of the book, I had no idea where the author was going, and, to be honest, I really didn’t care. Zephyr seemed to lurch from one improbable situation to the next, encountering over-the-top characters wherever she went. There were too many coincidences in the book to make me find the mystery even remotely probable. New York is a very big city. I wouldn’t expect a heroine to run into so many people related to her life in a city the size of Springfield, Illinois, let alone in New York City.

I have a feeling this is going to be the first in a series of the lady supers’ adventures in New York. If it is, I won’t be along for the second installment.