The Gatsby Gambit
A Novel
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A clever, transporting murder mystery, The Gatsby Gambit explores a world of class, money, glamour, and foul play—and reimagines some of America’s most beloved literary characters
Greta Gatsby has at last graduated from her stifling finishing school, is on the brink of turning twenty-one, and hopes to finally have her own legendary summer with her brother and guardian, Jay, at his West Egg mansion. Orphaned along with him some years before the war, Greta has seen her fortunes rise on the high tide of his entrepreneurship, even as she has remained in the shadows of his life—too young to join his late-night soirees or infamous summer parties and too shy to trade banter and barbs with his cadre of new friends.
Jay’s wish for her has been to shake off their new-money stain and gain a level of social acceptance he’s never quite enjoyed. She’s simply looking forward to reconnecting with him and embracing life as a modern young woman. She arrives at West Egg with a fresh and daring new bob hairdo to find Daisy and Tom Buchanan also summering at the mansion, along with Nick Carraway and Jordan Baker. And it’s hard to be noticed when the luminous and multifaceted Daisy Buchanan is in the same room.
But when one of their guests is murdered, Greta turns sleuth as the veil is lifted on Gatsby’s household and its inhabitants, including its staff. Tightly plotted, with thrilling prose and sensuous detail, this homage to and reinvention of a world American readers have lionized for generations ultimately reveals the secrets and lies that perpetuate the romantic notion that being rich is the answer to all of life’s problems.
Like the Enola Holmes series and The Christie Affair, The Gatsby Gambit is designed to bring new readers into the world of the original, iconic novel, as well as delight fans with its clever secrets and reverence for all things Gatsby.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Anderson-Wheeler debuts with a tepid murder mystery featuring characters from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Greta Gatsby, Jay's naive 21-year-old sister, has come to stay at his Long Island estate in West Egg for the summer. As usual, the country house is filled to the brim with Jay's glamorous friends, including wealthy brothers Tom and Edgar Buchanan, and Tom's ethereal wife, Daisy. Greta is initially enchanted by the lavish parties and sumptuous fashion, but she gradually senses unease beneath the shiny surface. When Tom is found dead on Jay's boat, the police rule it a suicide, allowing Jay and his guests to return to their amusements; Greta, however, is horrified and decides to delve deeper into the matter. After an excursion to the seedy side of town, she concludes that Tom was murdered and sets out to nail the culprit. Anderson-Wheeler is too deep in thrall to her famous characters to cast them in a new light, and the mystery takes too long to heat up. This disappoints.
