Ann Aptaker

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: New York City, 1899.

A city on the cusp of a new century. A city growing taller, faster, a city of new inventions, new ideas—and old dangers on its shadowy streets where crime, misery, and murder lurk.

When Pauline Godfrey, a young woman embodying the coming modern age, is viciously murdered, her throat cut, private inquiry agents Finola “Fin” Donner and Devorah Longstreet must navigate a world of violence and passion, lust and betrayal, where duty is twisted into bitter obedience and love is soiled.

Fin, a tough survivor of the dockside slums, and her beloved companion, the elegant, intellectual socialite Devorah, probe deep into the festering secrets of a family, the rot and corruption of the police department, and the sinister world of the city’s thieves, whores, and thugs to find the killer.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Sapphic sleuths in Gilded Age Manhattan? ANN APTAKER penned?! Sign me right the *bleep* up! Do I particularly care whose murder this concerns? Nope! I want the pleasure of watching as Author Aptaker upends the worldview of the hoi polloi with two people who decline to participate in their tedious little black-or-white, top-or-bottom nuanceless tosh.

That, comme d'habitude, she does. *happy sigh*

A new historical fiction crime series is always a welcome development for me.I like the QUILTBAG worlds that they inhabit to come back alive and crack the false front of heteronormative society's homogeneity without our homosexuality into flinders. Author Aptaker has done this before with the Cantor Gold Crimes series in New York's pre-Stonewall art world. They're refreshingly nonconformist and still part of the long mystery novel tradition of upholding ma'at.

I don't use "law and order" here, because cruel, immoral laws are passed daily all over the world, and vicious repressive order maintained by the small-souled pursey-lipped fear-driven fools that abound in every single time period of human history. Ma'at means something altogether more agreeable to me (and I suspect to most others): The rightness and fitness of things in the world; the always joyous sense of your world running well. Ma'at herself is the center of the Afterlife as the one who weighs the dead person's heart against her feather; if the heart is heavier than the feather, that person is utterly expunged; is prevented thereby from participating in an eternal existence of harmony and pleasure. I wonder often how many righteous crusaders for Truth God and Justice will pass this test....

Certainly the outwardly, conformally Proper and Good Citizens in this story won't. How this series will take that inner-vs-outer duality ball and run with it is set up with clarity and simplicity in the choice of main charcters. Fin and Dev are from wildly different milieux, one a rough-and-tumble survivor of the wild and violent streets and the other a Lady of Quality. Very much like Nick and Nora, Author Aptaker's couple are beautifully suited in ways they continue to discover as their time together expands and their experience of each other's kindness and blindness deepens. In this initial outing, the glossy surfaces are just not quite ever matched by smooth underpinnings. Rough exteriors can, and most likely will, smooth out. Long-unquestioned shibboleths fall, leaving no thick coatings of dust just light blurrings of their outlines. It's a gift to be allowed to see a character's growth instead of meeting them fully formed here in the first book. Well chosen, Author Aptaker!

The web of lies and vileness that Fin and Dev unravel in 1899 Manhattan is nothing if not relevant to today's world where misery is considered the proper condition of the poor, the disabled, the Other. The horrible perpetuators of that misery appall and offend these upright people, who subscribe to the ma'at I described above. The fact that they come at it from very different starting points gives rise to some of the most relatable conflicts in the story: Dev feels, for example, the ugly gnaw of jealousy; Fin the hollowness of insecurity. These being inevitable in any long-term relationship, it's good to see them here, and see them seen off by the women...together.

What I most needed on a hot July weekend when going outside was, for multiple reasons, not a great idea. It kept me engaged in, interested by, rooting for, our ma'at-maintaining duo. There's not a lot stronger recommendation I can give you.… (més)

I'm a little torn on the rating for this book but, ultimately, I really enjoyed the language and the plot. I never felt the chemistry between Cantor and Celeste and that hurt my enjoyment of the overall book. I just couldn't get past the way that Cantor acted with and thought about Celeste after only a few hours when it's pretty clearly stated that Celeste is a liar, a user, and straight...

But the ending was pretty damn good! And I did really like the language and the historical aspect.

Overall, good job and I do recommend it.… (més)

Ann Aptaker has written another fascinating look into the culture of New York City’s underworld in the 1950s. In this outing Cantor Gold, a successful art thief, is being stalked. She has no clue who she’s angered enough to not only kill one of the city’s leading retired mobsters, but his grown daughter as well. The circles those two associated with have nothing to do with Cantor. As the notes she receives, threatening not only her but the people she cares for, escalate, Cantor is desperate enough to work with her worse enemies, a cop, to stop the person out to get her.

Cantor is a flawed character and hasn’t changed from the first book in this series to this latest offering. From the way she thinks to the way she struts around, she could easily be an emotionally stunted teenager. Of course, she has her moments, but as much as her creator wants us to like, even love, Cantor, it’s hard to relate to her.

The storyline is fascinating because it delves into the gay culture as well as the world of criminals and those who pursue them. A lot of Cantor’s bravado fades as the killer continues his/her killing spree and she becomes more vulnerable. Aptaker increases the tension of Cantor’s situation as she moves through her story and keeps it ratcheted up until Cantor realizes who is out to get her.

If you are a fan of this author and the Cantor Gold series, you’ll undoubtedly love this sixth book in the series. If you’re new to the series, reading this book will introduce you to Cantor slowly but surely and you’ll not feel lost because you’re coming to the series late.

My thanks to Bywater Books and Edelweiss for an eARC.… (més)

this wasn't perfect - there are a few things that didn't ring true - but this is fun. i don't read a lot of noir so i don't know how authentic it is, but if it's not, it's good imitation. the language and the over the top metaphors and the time period and the drama were all clicking and working well. the "objectification of women" part of the noir package, i understand, but it was a little disappointing that there was so much of it. (and i didn't buy that cantor would believe anything authentic in celeste's feelings. and definitely that they would ever stay in the basement of the butcher shop when they didn't find clues.) but minor mistakes aside, this was a really fun start to a series.

my favorite example of the noir language: "Her eyes go hard while her mouth, so red and tempting it should be arrested on a morals charge, shuts tighter than a bank teller's window at closing time."… (més)