I feel like I might have gotten around to putting this on hold eventuallly, but credit for being first on the hold list goes to emmalita!
My biggest issue with this novel was how short it was! Given how much happened, and how rich the world felt, I’m frankly shocked to find out that it’s the equivalent of 144 pages. Reading on an e-reader really messes with your sense of length…
My biggest issue with Polk’s prior trilogy (The Kingston Trilogy) was that her political message got a bit heavy handed in balance with the magic and world-building. I wanted to hear more about the latter, and got a little more of the former such that it didn’t feel as seamless. Here, Polk is almost entirely focused on the latter—somehow we get an entirely fleshed out universe in alt-Chicago with the barest of strokes. Mephistopheles has nothing on Helen, who sold her soul in a gift of the magi gone terribly wrong. The only survivor of an accident that claimed her immediate family, she makes a desperate plea with the devil to bring back her brother from the afterworld in return for damnation in ten years. She saves her brother but in doing so is forever estranged from him and the society of warlocks (?)/magicians that he is a member of (a society that never was going to accept her as a woman, but I digress). In the intervening years, she’s built a life for herself as a pitter patter-y gumshoe detective with the fedora and the slick tailored suits. She’s also met and fallen in love with Edith, a radio host with the voice of an angel who’s a real doll to boot. She’s got days left on the planet, days she wants to spend with her dame, but then she’s called in for one last job…
If the vibe hasn’t gotten to you yet—fast talking dames, noir up the wazoo—then this book isn’t for you. Summary aside, the romance isn’t the main point here (she’s already got the girl) it’s the desperation of trying to appreciate what you have when you know the end is coming. What does Helen want to leave behind for Edith when she’s gone? Does she want to reconcile with her brother for whom she gave up everything? How much does a moment of happiness matter in a cold, dark work? The whole thing should be shot in black and white through a haze of cigarette smoke and a softly tinkling glass of whiskey, with a jazz band playing away int he background. I don’t even know that I want more of this world, even though we do end on the most perfectly heart wrenching ending, because I’m worried that to revisit it would crush some of the perfection that Polk has achieved.