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Jane Smiley, author of A Dangerous Business

Monterey, 1851. Ever since her husband was killed in a bar fight, Eliza Ripple has been working in a brothel. It seems like a better life, at least at first. The madam, Mrs. Parks, is kind, the men are (relatively) well behaved, and Eliza has attained what few women have: financial security. But when the dead bodies of young women start appearing outside of town, a darkness descends that she can't resist confronting. Side by side with her friend, Jean, and inspired by her reading --- especially by Edgar Allan Poe’s detective, Dupin --- Eliza pieces together an array of clues to try to catch the killer, all the while juggling clients who begin to seem more and more suspicious.

Week of November 6, 2023

Paperback releases for the week of November 6th include Jane Smiley's A DANGEROUS BUSINESS, a rollicking murder mystery set in Gold Rush California in which two young prostitutes follow a trail of missing girls; THE VILLA by Rachel Hawkins, a brilliant gothic suspense set at an Italian villa with a dark history; NOVELIST AS A VOCATION, an insightful look into the mind of a master storyteller and a unique look at the craft of writing from beloved author Haruki Murakami; Armando Lucas Correa's THE NIGHT TRAVELER, a sweeping novel in which four generations of women experience love, loss, war and hope --- from the rise of Nazism to the Cuban Revolution and, finally, the fall of the Berlin Wall; THE DELUGE by Stephen Markley, a masterful American epic charting a near future approaching collapse and a nascent but strengthening solidarity; and the paperback original THE WISHING BRIDGE, a new holiday novel from Viola Shipman that sparkles with the humor and heart that fans of Kristy Woodson Harvey, Nancy Thayer and Jenny Colgan love most.