Glitter in the Dark
This queer noir debut centers on ambitious advice columnist Ginny Dugan, who is impatient at receiving only fluff assignments at Photoplay magazine. Ginny alternates days at her job with drunken nights at parties fueled by bootleg liquor and drugs. All that changes when Ginny wangles her way into Harlem’s hottest speakeasy only to witness the kidnapping of a famous, but mysterious singer. When Ginny sees her being carried away, apparently unconscious, she assumes the singer had simply overdosed – until she is nearly killed herself. Suddenly the target of bootleggers and drug dealers, Ginny decides to pursue the story, believing that a scoop will win her a promotion. When Ginny’s own boss warns her off the case, Ginny reluctantly teams up with Jack Crawford, a PI with secrets of his own. But their investigation is compromised by Ginny’s inability to avoid her late-night partying – aided and abetted by Gloria Gardner, the star dancer of the Ziegfeld Follies where Ginny’s sister Dottie also works.
Lyuzna’s prose is first-rate, vividly capturing the rhythms of a lost world. However, Ginny’s self-destructiveness begins to feel more like her sole characteristic, rather than her defining one, and some readers may wish for a more nuanced protagonist. Other readers may find themselves wishing the novel took more pleasure in the louche charms of Prohibition-era New York. But this well-researched, well-written book is well worth a read.
