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Lädt ... A Dangerous Business (2022)von Jane Smiley
Lädt ...
Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. A promising premise for sure. Gold Rush California and a widowed prostitute, Eliza, and her friend decide to find out who is murdering women after being inspired by the works of E.A. Poe. Should be interesting, right? Nope. Boring. The whole novel spins in this average routine: Eliza takes in a gentlemen at the brothel, describes the event, then goes and finds a dead body with her friend in the woods. Eliza talks about mud and footprints a lot, follows some people around, takes in another gentleman at the brothel, describes prick and maybe they are a suspect. Then she eats food and walks around some more. No tension, no air of mystery, or feeling they are in danger. I feel like this could have been a short story but Smiley and her publisher wanted it blow up to fulfill some sort of contractual obligation. Bloated and tedious. Surprisingly light and breezy. Eliza and her friend Jane are investigating the disappearances of women in their area. There investigation is composed of reading Poe's mystery stories and wandering around town. They stumble upon two bodies. Eliza is sure that several different new men are the killer. Jane believes in ghosts. No one has any problems with Jane working at a brothel for women and her cross dressing. A murder mystery set in gold rush California involving local prostitutes - and one of them is from the town where I work in the midwest. This was a little light on mystery and a little heavy on the business of prostitution, but the characters were great fun to follow, and it isn't a long book. I really don't know how they kept stumbling on the bodies of the murdered girls, but that sure was convenient. keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
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"From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author: a rollicking murder mystery set in Gold Rush California, as two young prostitutes follow a trail of missing girls. 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. Eliza and Jean are determined not just to survive but to find their way in a lawless town on the fringes of the Wild West-a bewitching combination of beauty and danger-as what will become the Civil War looms on the horizon. As Mrs. Parks says, 'Everyone knows that this is a dangerous business, but between you and me, being a woman is a dangerous business, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise . . . '"-- Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Klassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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It succeeds more as a historical piece. 1850s Monterey comes to life in Smiley's hands, with the help of Eliza's narration and the stories of her various customers. Smiley handles Eliza's line of work gently and manages to make it interesting rather than lurid. With a little more investment in her two main characters, the lackluster mystery and its investigation would hardly have been needed. ( )