A Dangerous Business

''I raced through this murder mystery'' Good Housekeeping, 10 Books to Read Right Now!

''Smiley is a masterful writer'' Sunday Times

''Outstanding. Her sentences are sublime'' Roxane Gay

From a brilliant Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author: a rollicking murder mystery set in Gold Rush California, as two young prostitutes follow a trail of missing girls.

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