Queenpin
A Novel
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2.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
From Megan Abbott, the “new Queen of noir” (Ken Bruen, author of American Skin), a thrillingly hardboiled novel about two women who must stay one step ahead of their bosses and each other in the ruthless world of nightclubs and casinos.
A young woman hired to keep the books at a down-at-the-heels nightclub is taken under the wing of the infamous Gloria Denton, a mob luminary who reigned during the era of Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano. Notoriously cunning and ruthless, Gloria shows her eager young protégée the ropes, ushering her into a glittering realm of late-night casinos, racetracks, betting parlors, inside heists, and big, big money. Suddenly, the world is at her feet—as long as she doesn’t take any chances…like falling for the wrong guy. As the roulette wheel turns, both mentor and protégée scramble to stay one step ahead of their bosses and each other.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Edgar-finalist Abbott (Die a Little) delivers a sharp, slender, hardboiled tale of a prot g 's schooling by a notorious, been-there-done-that moll. The first time the unnamed 22-year-old female narrator lays eyes on Gloria Denton, her first thought is "I want the legs." The setting is the Club Tee Hee, an indeterminate Las Vegas L.A. nowhere where "the kid" is doing the mobbed-up books, and Gloria comes in every few weeks to count "Jerome's vig." The kid absorbs very entertaining lessons in how to dress, move, behave, and how to pick up, transport and distribute payoffs and winnings until she falls for sweet-talking gambler Vic Riordan. Abbott is pitch-perfect throughout: Gloria Denton, still turning heads in her 40s, is as hard a moll as any, and the kid is a beautiful combination of foil and tool as she strives to emulate her role model. The collision, violent and inevitable, rips away the facade of glitz and glamour, and leaves their low-end edifice starkly exposed.
