Two Women Test Their Mettle in ‘The Wicked City’ [REVIEW]

Two women from different eras are linked by a very special place in Beatriz Williams’ The Wicked City. (Photo courtesy Pexels)

When a modern woman is forced to start life anew, she discovers an unexpected link to the past in her new home. How will she balance her newfound connection to a freespirited woman from the Jazz Age with the woman she has always known herself to be? Find out in Beatriz Williams’ The Wicked City.  

William Morrow

When Manhattanite Ella Gilbert discovers that her husband has been living a double life, she is devastated. Soon she walks out and finds a place of her own in Greenwich Village, far removed from the SoHo apartment she shared with her philandering hubby.

There she encounters Hector, the handsome musician who lives upstairs. He regals her with tales of their building’s storied past, telling her how it once served as a speakeasy during the Roaring Twenties.

Among the people who frequented the joint back in 1924 is Geneva “Gin” Kelly, a redheaded Maryland flapper. One night she got caught in a raid by Prohibition enforcement agent Oliver Anson, who then enlists her to help him catch her stepfather, one of the biggest bootleggers in Appalachia.

The alliance between the flapper and the Revenue agent not only rattles Manhattan society, but it ultimately lays bare scandalous secrets that are even shocking to Gin.

As Ella digs deeper to unravel this story, she discovers a familial tie to the freespirited redhead and realizes just how powerfully Gin’s legacy will impact her own life.

Those of you who read along with me on a regular basis know that historical novels aren’t usually the first thing I tend to read. Those are usually the books on Jathan’s night stand. So it takes a truly captivating writer to draw me into such a book. But Beatriz Williams has a real knack for writing an immersive novel that fascinates and doesn’t get bogged down in dry details better suited to a collegiate history course. In fact, with The Wicked City, she has crafted a rich story filled with fascinating characters readers will come to love.

What makes this story truly unique, however, is how a seemingly innocuous basement transforms into a 1920s speakeasy every night after midnight. Like Ella, readers will find themselves intrigued by the beautiful music and laughter emanating from the depths of the residential building in the middle of Greenwich Village.

Using sensory detail, riveting period history and pure storytelling genius, Williams draws us into the lives of these two disparate women, and readers won’t be able to resist turning pages as they seek to understand the connection between them.

The Wicked City is a vibrant story that readers will undoubtedly connect with emotionally and which will ultimately capture their imaginations. Using unforgettable characters and dialogue that at times makes us laugh out loud, this is one historical you’ll be glad you didn’t pass by.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Beatriz Williams
(Photo by Marilyn Ross)

Beatriz Williams is the New York Times bestselling author of A Hundred Summers, The Secret Life of Violet Grant, Along the Infinite Sea, A Certain Age, and several other works of historical fiction. Beatriz’s books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and appear regularly in bestseller lists around the world.

A graduate of Stanford University with an MBA in finance from Columbia University, Beatriz worked as a communications and corporate strategy consultant in New York and London before she turned her attention to writing novels that combine her passion for history with an obsessive devotion to voice and characterization.

Born in Seattle, Wash., Beatriz now lives near the Connecticut shore with her husband and four children, where she divides her time between writing and laundry. Find out more about her at her home on the Web at BeatrizWilliams.com, like her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

THE WICKED CITY
By Beatriz Williams
384 pgs. William Morrow. $15.99

Purchase The Wicked City at one of these fine online retailers: HarperCollins, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

The Wicked City is brought to you in association with TLC Book Tours.

The Wicked City Giveaway

Want to win a copy of Beatriz Williams’ The Wicked City for your personal library? Simply complete the form below and click submit to enter. Giveaway is limited to U.S. residents only. Contest ends January 18, 2018.