The Silver Gun
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
A young Mayor’s assistant gets caught between Tammany Hall gangsters and her childhood nightmares in this mystery set in Depression Era New York.
New York City, 1936.It’s been six months since Lane Sanders was appointed Mayor Fiorello “Fio” La Guardia’s new personal aide, and the twenty-three-year-old is sprinting in her Mary Janes to keep up. Managing endless revitalization efforts while combating the Tammany Hall political machine makes for long, unpredictable days. But the non-stop pace is a welcome distraction from the childhood memories that haunt her dreams—and the silver gun she’ll never forget.
When Lane is attacked and threatened by one of the city’s most notorious gangsters, even the mayor can’t promise her safety. Corrupt city officials are using her as a pawn against Fio for disgracing their party in the prior election. But that doesn’t explain why her assailant wielding the same silver gun from her nightmares.
Balancing a clandestine love affair and a mounting list of suspects, Lane must figure out how the secrets of her past are connected to the city’s underground crime network—before someone pulls the trigger on the most explosive revenge plot in New York history.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lane Sanders, the appealing 23-year-old narrator of this uneven series launch set in 1930s New York City, has become the top assistant to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and is thus in the thick of her boss's efforts to improve the city and eradicate the lingering corrupt influences of Tammany Hall. Lane is haunted by disturbing dreams involving an ice-skating accident and a silver gun, which cross over into reality when she's accosted by a man bearing such a weapon. The man, a thug in the employ of gangsters, passes on a veiled threat to La Guardia that could "shake up the city." The independent Lane displays impressive management skills, and Chandlar (The Christmas Journalist) does a good job of evoking the period ("a time of Depression-defying wit, art, and innovation," as she comments in an author's note), but a predictable romantic subplot doesn't add any depth to her lead's character, and the action builds to a formulaic climax as Lane desperately strives to avert disaster. Awkward prose ("His bravado of a second ago started to run like a frightened deer") doesn't help.
