In Last Call at the Nightingale, Katharine Schellman (The Body in the Garden) serves up Prohibition-era murder and intrigue with style, atmosphere and a side of bootlegged bubbles and gin. The first in a Jazz Age mystery series, this novel will appeal to readers on several levels.
In 1920s New York City, Vivian Kelly is alone in the world but for her stick-in-the-mud older sister, Florence. Vivian works for a pittance and receives less respect in a dressmaker's factory, but at night she has a space where she can forget her poor pricked fingers and dance 'til last call: the Nightingale, a speakeasy jazz club. "She needed to feel like she belonged somewhere, to feel there was something in her life that actually belonged to her," and the Nightingale and its staff and patrons give her just that. Vivian is "poor orphan Irish trash"; her best friend Bea is Black; bartender Danny is Chinese; and the bar's owner, Ms. Honor Huxley (don't call her Miss), prefers other women as her dance partners. The Nightingale is a place where anything goes, more or less--until one night that includes murder.
When Vivian discovers a body just outside the club's back door, she finds herself thrown into circumstances beyond her usual daytime drudgery and nighttime frolics. "I grew up in an orphanage. I live in a tenement. People die faster there than on Park Avenue," she blusters, but she's in over her head. Arrested in a raid, she owes her bail bond to the intimidating but sexy and intriguing Ms. Huxley. Then a mysterious stranger arrives from Chicago and begins pursuing Vivian. Threatening bruisers are hot on her tail, and Florence is increasingly displeased by the younger sister's nightlife. Vivian at first feels pressure from others to solve the murder; eventually she may need to do so to save her own life. A poor dressmaker's apprentice, she creeps into the parlors of the powerful to poke into their secrets, and finds herself pinned between the criminal underworld and the careless menace of the very rich. Time is running out, but this protagonist is as plucky as they come.
Readers will love Last Call at the Nightingale for its twisting plot, its flair for historical detail and its inclusive cast of appealing characters. Schellman's author's note on historical accuracy broadens the appeal of this engrossing jaunt into murder and dangerously good times. Don't look away, as the surprises keep coming until the final page. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia
Shelf Talker: With lively and appealing historical detail, this mystery turns a poor factory worker into a sleuth when a murder disrupts the party at her favorite jazz speakeasy.