Liars in Paradise
Jack Crawford and Ginny Dugan run a small NYC detective agency. On a night in 1925, big-money gambling at the private Empire Club ends in a massive shootout. Jack, bloodied up and holding a gun, survives the massacre but is the prime suspect. The club’s owner and his hitmen give Jack five days to prove his innocence.
Ginny and Jack’s only lead is a woman named Lila, who was at the crime scene but survived and fled. If they find her, she could clear Jack. They follow clues to an estate on the north shore of Long Island. The estate’s huge mansion of many rooms and secret passages is the home of a spiritual self-improvement cult. It serves up courses to 200 students at a time. The spiritual guidance is enhanced by food, drugs, booze, and sex to satisfy any taste. All staff wear face masks and at times nothing more. Former lovers of both Ginny and Jack turn up at the estate, adding layers of conflict. One of them owns the estate; the other one is an important cult member. In constant chaos, Ginny and Jack frantically search for Lila and pursue other leads with no solid answers, only more dead bodies.
The clipped prose fits the noir theme. Jack, a WWI veteran with PTSD, and feisty Ginny are easy to root for. A chart of characters would help keep track of the many other players. The main plot arc—who shot up the gambling joint, and was Jack cleared in the allotted five days?—sometimes gets lost in many other troubled people and their stories. The ultimate resolution leaves significant loose ends and hints at a sequel.
