Review by Booklist Review
Thornton's historical mystery plunges the reader into the corrupt world of Omaha in 1930, a city so vile that the undertaker could be paid off to cremate someone who was recently murdered in a crematorium concealing a still to make bootleg liquor. The "little underworld" of the title refers to how the city-and-statewide influence of crime boss Tom Dennison put a stranglehold on all levels of Omaha's politics, police, and businesses. We meet two denizens of the little underworld, Jim Beely and his brother Ward, on the banks of the Missouri River, punishing a man by repeatedly dunking him under the water. What starts as an assault turns into murder, a corrupt cop insists that Jim and Ward work for him, and the brothers' descent through the city's layers of corruption begins. Jim, a former cop turned private investigator, is a sympathetic, layered character. Readers may find the beginning chapters a bit confusing, since Thornton isn't explicit about the historical background. However, following the harrowing plot in a setting out of The Inferno is well worth it.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Thornton dives into the vice and corruption of 1930s Omaha in this undercooked follow-up to Pickard County Atlas. The action opens on private eye Jim Beely drowning child molester Vern Meyer--who assaulted Beely's 15-year-old daughter--in a river. Beely then takes Meyer's body to the crematorium to be burned, where he runs into Frank Tvrdik, a crooked cop who offers to look the other way if Beely agrees to help take down Elmer Kobb, a candidate for Omaha commissioner with plans to seize control of the city's liquor-soaked underworld. With no real choice, Beely joins Tvrdik, and the two embark on a gritty, violent trek through Omaha's seediest locales, eventually getting tangled up in a second murder. Thornton laces the hardboiled narrative with welcome flashes of dark humor, but her tale is short on atmosphere, forgoing scene setting in favor of excessive dialogue that hinders immersion. This falls short of Thornton's promising debut. Agent: Emily Forland, Brandt & Hochman. (Mar.)
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