137 pages
Published 2022
Read from June 26 to June 29
Rating: 4 out of 5
This one is a queer noir set in an alternate Chicago rife with magic. Narrator Helen Brandt is a mystic, a specialist in divination, and a private eye working for a femme fatale downtown. Helen knows she only has a few days left on earth. She takes one last job to pad out the nest egg she plans to leave to her paramour Edith. But the case is much bigger, and much more dangerous, than Helen ever suspected, and she gets drawn in despite her plan to spend her last weekend with Edith.
Polk's pacing is crisp, setting up the characters, the world, the stakes, and the complications chapter by chapter, exactly when needed. Their prose is solid, contemporary, adding just enough pulp rhythm in to add atmosphere without the voice slipping into patter.
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