A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley

A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling author of A Thousand Acres An amazing mash-up of a Western, a serial-killer mystery and a feminist-inflected tale of life in a bordello (The Washington Post).

In 1850s Gold Rush California two young prostitutes, best friends Eliza and Jean, attempt to find their way in a lawless town on the fringes of the Wild West--a bewitching combination of beauty and danger--as what will become the Civil War looms on the horizon.

Everyone knows that this is a dangerous business, but between you and me, being a woman is a dangerous business, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise...

Monterey, 1851. Ever since her husband was killed in a bar fight, Eliza Ripple has been working in a brothel. It seems like a better life, at least at first. The madam, Mrs. Parks, is kind, the men are (relatively) well behaved, and Eliza has attained what few women have: financial security. But when the dead bodies of young women start appearing outside of town, a darkness descends that she can't resist confronting. Side by side with her friend Jean, and inspired by her reading, especially by Edgar Allan Poe's detective Dupin, Eliza pieces together an array of clues to try to catch the killer, all the while juggling clients who begin to seem more and more suspicious.

Eliza and Jean are determined not just to survive, but to find their way in a lawless town on the fringes of the Wild West--a bewitching combination of beauty and danger--as what will become the Civil War looms on the horizon. As Mrs. Parks says, Everyone knows that this is a dangerous business, but between you and me, being a woman is a dangerous business, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise ...

Jane Smiley is the author of A Thousand Acres, as well as more than 10 other works of fiction, including Horse Heaven, Moo, and The Greenlanders, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001. She resides in the state of California's northwestern region.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780525520337
ISBN 10	0525520333
Title	A Dangerous Business
Author	Jane Smiley
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Alfred A. Knopf
Year published	2022-12-06
Number of pages	224
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.