Queenpin
A classic story of underworld greed and betrayal, introducing a mesmerising and compelling unreliable narrator ...
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- 7,49 €
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- 7,49 €
Publisher Description
'If Abbott writes half a dozen more books as good as her first three ... she will claim the throne as the finest prose stylist in crime fiction since Raymond Chandler' San Francisco Chronicle
A young woman hired to keep the books at a down-at-heel nightclub is taken under the wing of the infamous Gloria Denton, a mob luminary who reigned during the Golden Era of Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano. The moll to end all molls, Gloria is notoriously cunning and ruthless. She shows her eager young protégéethe ropes, ushering her into a glittering whirl of late-night casinos, racetracks, betting parlours, 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.
It all falls to pieces with a few turns of the roulette wheel, as 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.
