Spirits and Smoke
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Deadly drinks, vicious gangsters, missing money . . . Reluctant sleuth Maddie Pastore is back with a bang, in the second Mystic’s Accomplice historical mystery set in 1920s Chicago.
"Miley’s storytelling skills do justice to her clever, gutsy, and endearing protagonist. This is a real treat for readers who love stories set in the Roaring ’20s"- Publishers Weekly Starred Review
December, 1924. Young widow Maddie Pastore feels fortunate to be employed by the well-meaning but fraudulent medium Carlotta Romany. Investigating Carlotta’s clients isn’t work she’s proud of, but she’s proud of how well she does it.
Maddie’s talents, however, draw them unwelcome attention: sharp-eyed Officer O’Rourke from the Chicago Police. He doesn’t believe in spiritualism – but in a city packed with mobsters, con artists and criminals, he’ll take any help he can get.
It’s not long before Maddie has a case to bring him. Why did teetotal banker Herman Quillen die of alcohol poisoning? And who is the gold-toothed man claiming to be his brother, and demanding the spirits reveal where Herman hid his money?
All Maddie wants is to uncover the truth – but to her horror, she’s soon mixed up in a tangled web of secrets and deception that leads to the heart of Chicago’s violent gangs . . . and she’ll need all her wits about her if she, and her loved ones, are going to make it out again alive.
Spirits and Smoke, the sequel to The Mystic’s Accomplice, is an ideal pick for readers who enjoy Jazz Age mysteries with feisty female sleuths, sparkling historical detail and Prohibition high-jinks.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in Prohibition-era Chicago, Miley's vibrant sequel to 2021's The Mystic's Accomplice finds young widow and mother Maddie Pastore working as a shill and researcher for spiritualist Madame Carlotta Romany when a thuggish man crashes a séance and demands Carlotta contact his brother, bank teller Herman Quillen, who died after ingesting a poisonous "smoke cocktail." But when Maddie digs into Quillen's background, she discovers he had no brother. In fact, Quillen's sister is convinced her brother was murdered. Who could have wanted the inoffensive and colorless Quillen dead, and who was the mysterious "brother" trying to find out at the séance? Could it have something to do with $100,000 missing out of a huge deposit by the mob at Quillen's bank? The bagman who's on the hook for the missing money believes Maddie knows where the money is, and he's determined to get it from her any way he can. Miley's storytelling skills do justice to her clever, gutsy, and endearing protagonist. This is a real treat for readers who love stories set in the Roaring '20s.
