Set during the heyday of mobster crime in 1930s New York City, A Pair of Aces is the third Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray collaboration (The Personal Librarian; The First Ladies) featuring undernoted trailblazing women. This time, the two reveal the unlikely partnership between a lawyer from the district attorney's staff and the most famous madam among New York's brothels.
Lawyer Eunice Carter is the city's first Black woman prosecutor and has worked hard to earn her job with the Manhattan DA's team committed to bringing down organized crime. Russian immigrant Polly Adler, New York's "Jewish Jezebel," runs a brothel known for its discretion and class, caring for "[her] girls" who serve the famous and the infamous. As Eunice traces citizens' complaints about the houses of ill repute, she sees a pattern among the bondsmen who bail out arrested sex workers, linking them to the racketeers the city is targeting. Eunice needs witnesses to make her case that the mob is infiltrating prostitution, and Polly needs the underworld, whose methods include violence, out of her business. The two, "not friends but allies," have a common goal: to bring the notorious Lucky Luciano and his comrades to justice.
Eunice and Polly risk their lives to share tips and collect evidence, and their quiet efforts lead to a sensational 1936 trial and Luciano's conviction. With references to mid-1930s New York names, music, locales, and culture, A Pair of Aces is lush with the era's atmosphere, enriching the story of two bold women who changed history. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House, Albany, N.Y.