The Fate of a Flapper, the second mystery in this captivating new
series, takes readers into the dark, dangerous, and glittering
underworld of a 1920's Chicago speakeasy.
A 2019 Agatha Award Nominee for Best Historical Mystery!
After nine months as a cigarette girl at the Third Door, one of
Chicago's premier moonshine parlors, Gina Ricci feels like she's finally
getting into the swing of things. The year is 1929, the Chicago Cubs are
almost in the World Series, neighborhood gangs are all-powerful, and
though Prohibition is the law of the land, the Third Door can't serve
the cocktails fast enough.
Two women in particular are throwing drinks back with abandon while
chatting up a couple of bankers, and Gina can't help but notice the
levels of inebriation and the tension at their table. When the group
stumbles out in the early morning, she tries to put them out of her
head. But once at home that night, Gina's sleep is interrupted when her
cousin Nancy, a police officer, calls--she's found a body. Gina hurries
over to photograph the crime scene, but stops short when she recognizes
the body: it's one of the women from the night before.
Could the Third Door have served the woman bad liquor? Or, Gina wonders,
could this be murder? As the gangs and bombings draw ever closer, all of
Chicago starts to feel like a warzone, and Gina is determined to find
out if this death was an unlucky accident, or a casualty of combat.