The wicked redhead

Beatriz Williams

Book - 2019

Ginger Kelly wakes up in 1924 in tranquil Cocoa Beach, Florida, after fleeing to safety with disgraced Prohibition agent Oliver Anson Marshall, and her newly-orphaned young sister, Patsy. But Marshall is reinstated to the agency with suspicious haste to patrol for rumrunners on the high seas. When he promptly disappears, Gin hurries north to rescue him, only to be trapped in an agonizing moral quandary by Marshall's desperate mother. In 1998, Ella Dommerich is settled into her new life in Greenwich Village, inside the same apartment where a certain redheaded flapper lived long ago. Having quit her job at an accounting firm, cut ties with her unfaithful ex-husband, and begun a love affair with her musician neighbor, Hector, Ella's ...eager to piece together the history of the mysterious Gin Kelly, whose only physical trace is a series of rare vintage photograph cards for which she modeled before her disappearance. Two women, two generations, and two urgent quests will require both women's strength and determination to outwit a conspiracy spanning decades.

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Subjects
Genres
Romance fiction
Published
New York, NY : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers [2019]
Language
English
Main Author
Beatriz Williams (author)
Edition
First edition
Item Description
Series numeration from www.goodreads.com.
Includes reading group guide and excerpt from The Golden Hour.
Physical Description
406, 18 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN
9780062660312
9781635468236
9780062791511
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Williams' follow-up to The Wicked City (2017) picks up immediately where the action of its predecessor left off. In 1924, flapper Gin Kelly is in Florida with her ex-Prohibition-agent beau, Oliver Anson Marshall, on the run from authorities and bootleggers alike. Soon enough, however, they are back in New York, Anson having been reinstated to his position with suspicious haste, even as it becomes clear that someone still wishes both Anson and Gin harm. Meanwhile, in 1998, Ella Dommerich has just commenced a love affair with her musician neighbor, Hector, even as she attempts to put her odious ex-husband behind her and learn more about a certain redheaded flapper who appears in a mysterious vintage photograph. Unlike the rest of Williams' work, readers' enjoyment of this will be dependent on their familiarity with the preceding book. However, for her legion of fans, the fast-paced action, romantic intrigue, and period details will be sure to please, even if occasionally cariacaturish characterization and an overreliance on 1920s vernacular make this slightly weaker than her usual offerings.--Martha Waters Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review

In Williams's The Wicked City, recently divorced Ella Gilbert moves into a Greenwich Village apartment building that once housed a notorious speakeasy and discovers the story of red-haired, fast-talking flapper Geneva "Gin" Kelly, originally from Appalachia. (Ghostly music from the basement helped Ella find Gin.) Their intertwined stories continue here, as Ella seeks to pull further away from her ex, finding love with Hector, the musician upstairs, and Gin is separated from the Prohibition agent with whom she has fallen in love. With a 50,000-copy paperback and 25,000-copy hardcover first printing.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Williams' follow-up to The Wicked City (2017) continues the Prohibition-era adventures of a young woman torn between two brothers.We last saw titular redhead Geneva "Ginger" Kelly on the lam with her new boyfriend, Prohibition agent Oliver Anson, after a violent altercation with Appalachian bootleggers, including Ginger's villainous stepfather, Duke Kelly, who died in the melee. Another casualty of that violence, Oliver's younger brother, Billy, jaw shattered by Duke's brass knuckles, is now under the care of the brothers' mother, the imperious blueblood Mrs. Marshall. This novel opens as Oliver and Ginger have taken refuge in Cocoa Beach, Florida, with the Fitzwilliams, whom readers will recall from another Williams series (Cocoa Beach, 2017, etc.). In a continuing storyline from the first installment, Ella Gilbert, in 1998, is trying to sort out her love life with soul mate Hector, particularly now that she's learned she's pregnant by her soon-to-be-ex hubby, Patrick. Ella's story is still tangential to Ginger's tale despite stronger hints of linkages between the two women. Since nothing much is going on in Florida except an ominous, too-brief introduction to the armada of rum-running vessels lurking just outside coastal waters, the action (such as it is) shifts to the Marshalls' Manhattan and Southampton manses. Mrs. Marshall, aware that Ginger and Billy were once lovers, has summoned Ginger to help with Billy's recoveryby pretending to be his pregnant fiancee. Unhelpfully, Ginger's soul mate, Oliver, has gone back undercover and is oddly cold toward her. Ginger's first-person voice, that of a feisty hillbilly-turned-Manhattan flapper, is authentic enough, if a bit stilted, as if too much research had gone into imagining her argot. And Ginger's mental observations are recounted with a degree of detail that, while fulfilling its intended effect of re-creating the period and social milieu, does little to advance the story. There really is no throughline herethis novel is largely an extended anticlimax to Volume 1. After 400-plus pages, many loose ends remain, perhaps auguring a third book.A seemingly superfluous sequel. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.