It Is Time to Catch Up With the Schuyler Family
Wicked City
is the first novel in the Jazz Age series by Beatriz Williams. She begins the tale in New York City, but
takes readers back to a very historical time in this city. What were times like back then? How will this tale begin?
“When she discovers her banker, husband has been
harboring a secret life, Ella Gilbert escapes her SoHo loft for a studio in
Greenwich Village. Her charismatic musician neighbor, Hector, warns her to stay
out of the basement after midnight, when a symphony of mysterious noise strikes
up—laughter, clinking glasses, jazz piano, the occasional bloodcurdling
scream—even though the space has been empty for decades. Back in the Roaring
Twenties, the basement was home to one of the city’s most notorious
speakeasies.
In 1924, Geneva “Gin” Kelly, a quick-witted flapper
from the hills of western Maryland, is a regular at this Village hideaway.
Caught up in a raid, Gin lands in the office of Prohibition enforcement agent
Oliver Anson, who persuades her to help him catch her stepfather, Duke Kelly,
one of the biggest bootleggers in Appalachia.
But Gin is nobody’s fool. She strikes a risky
bargain with the taciturn, straight-arrow Revenue agent, and their alliance
rattles Manhattan society to its foundations, exposing secrets that shock even
this free-spirited redhead.
As Ella unravels the strange history of her new
building—and the family thread that connects her to Geneva Kelly—she senses the
Jazz Age spirit of her exuberant predecessor invading her own shy nature, in
ways that will transform her existence in the wicked city.” (Amazon)
My Thoughts:
Unfortunately, it was not my favorite Beatriz
Williams novel. I also listened to this
novel through audible. The Geneva Gin
Kelly character was not my favorite, and did not love the narration used for
her character. I did not see how her
storyline connected to the present. Geneva
Gin Kelly character has a lot of rough edges.
I did love learning the connections on the Schuyler side between Ella
and her Great Aunt Julie. This story
also seemed to outside the norm of what Beatriz William’s audience usually sees
from her novels.
To preorder the Golden Hour here.
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