I'm a big fan of Pulitzer-Prize winning author Jane Smiley; I'm not sure how I missed this 2022 publication. But if perusing the perusing the reviews on Amazon is any indication, well, it was not a huge commercial success. I didn't hate this novel, but I didn't love it either. It was okay.
Set in the 1850s in Monterrey, California, this book had a lot of layers. When readers join Eliza, she has gone to work in a brothel after her abusive husband is killed in a barroom fight. Readers are never sure if the man who shot her husband was punished or not. This is the most freedom that Eliza has ever experienced. And thanks to the wages she earns at Mrs. Parks and the tips the men leave, she has achieved what the majority of women in this era cannot: financial security.
Eliza becomes best friends with Jean, another prostitute whose brothel services women. This astounded me. I've never heard of brothels for women, but why not? Smiley did not go into as much detail here, but Jean's customers mostly came in the daytime whereas most of Eliza's customers were at night.
I was also surprised that the majority of women in this novel were educated and could read and write and do math. Eliza and Jean share a love of reading Edgar Allen Poe's short stories, and when the dead bodies of young women begin to be found, the two amateur sleuths use Poe's Detective Dupin's investigative techniques to get involved with the quest to find the killer. That part of the story lacked tension.
The story is rather plodding, educating the reader on the lives of the prostitutes, the brothel and the men who frequented them, the gorgeous locale, and sometimes more graphic descriptions of the deceased women.
A Dangerous Business receives 3 out of 5 starts in Julie's world.
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