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A review by stevienlcf
The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon
2.0
Lawhom uses the true unsolved mystery of a New York State court judge, Joseph Carter, who disappeared in 1930, and crafts a tale around what may have befallen him. In Lawhom's re-telling, Judge Carter was indebted to the Tammany political machine. He was also having an affair with a bosomy showgirl, Ritiz, a former Iowa farm girl who, herself, was indebted to the owner of the Cotton Club, Owen Madden, one of the gangsters who sold Carter his judicial seat. In addition to Carter's social-climbing wife, Stella, the cast is rounded out with the Carter's maid, who is torn between her loyalty to her employers and her husband, Jude, a police detective who is investigating Carter's disappearance.
Lawhom packs her historical fiction with some true Prohibition-era historical characters, but she also introduces the typical genre cliches, including a prostitute with a heart of gold, a back-alley abortionist, and a bevy of fedora-clad gangsters. Lawhom does provide a surprising twist when Stella, who is near death, reveals all she knows of her husband's disappearance to Jude some 40 years later; however, the book is less than satisfying. As one critic aptly stated, it is more "more wooden than pulpy."
Lawhom packs her historical fiction with some true Prohibition-era historical characters, but she also introduces the typical genre cliches, including a prostitute with a heart of gold, a back-alley abortionist, and a bevy of fedora-clad gangsters. Lawhom does provide a surprising twist when Stella, who is near death, reveals all she knows of her husband's disappearance to Jude some 40 years later; however, the book is less than satisfying. As one critic aptly stated, it is more "more wooden than pulpy."