Author: Ellen Mansoor Collier
Publisher: Decodame Press
Series: A Jazz Age Mystery #1
Format: ebook
Source: Great Escapes
Description:
"The Great Gatsby" meets "Boardwalk Empire" in this soft-boiled Jazz Age mystery, inspired by actual events. Real-life rival gangs fight over booze and bars during Prohibition in 1920s Galveston, Texas—the “Sin City of the Southwest.”
Jasmine Cross, a 21-year-old society reporter, feels caught between two clashing cultures: the seedy speakeasy underworld and the snooty social circles she covers in the Galveston Gazette. After a big-shot banker with a hidden past collapses at the Oasis—as speakeasy secretly owned by her black-sheep half-brother, Sammy Cook—Jazz suspects foul play. Was it an accident or a mob hit?
Soon handsome young Prohibition Agent James Burton raids the Oasis, threatening to shut it down if Sammy doesn't cooperate. Suspicious, he pursues Jazz, hoping for information (and some romance), but she refuses to rat on Sammy.
As turf wars escalate between the Downtown and Beach gangs, Sammy is accused of murder. To find the killer, Jazz must risk her life and career, exposing the dark side of Galveston’s glittering society.
My Thoughts:
I got this book as part of a book tour in July and loved this first book. It opens we meet Jasmine Cross know as Jazz who is a society reporter trying to get her big break in the newspaper industry but in the meantime does society articles. She has a brother named Sammy who runs a speakeasy and when the coppers are around it's a dinner.
Early in this book a local banker winds up dead but Jazz thinks something is up with Mr. Andrews. To make matters worse the death happens in Sammy's speakeasy and Jazz finds herself knee deep in mucky waters where bootlegging is happening. We also meet Agent James Burton who seems to fancy the young reporter.
I loved everything about the jazz era, the language they use the clothes they wore and just everything about the time era was great to read it in a book. Definitely a great spin on cozy mysteries I can't wait to read the next one in the series! Up Next Is:
2 shout outs:
Thanks so much for the great review, Paula--what a nice surprise! I love the 1920s too--maybe we were flappers in a past life? Hope you enjoy the trilogy! Best, Ellen
could very well be just something about that era is so fun to learn about and read about. I bet it would have been great to be a flapper :)
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