Westside Lights
Book Feature - Westside Lights by WM Akers
HBL Note: WESTSIDE LIGHTS by WM Akers is the third and final book in his Gilda Carr Tiny Mystery series, although it is a stand alone novel. The first book in this series and Akers’s debut novel, Westside, received a glowing review and was named a “notable book” of the year by The New York Times Book Review. Described as The Alienist meets the magical mystery of The Ninth House, WESTSIDE LIGHTS is a little bit mystery, a little bit supernatural, and a lot of action. Scroll down to read more.
Book Feature - Westside Lights by WM Akers
Book Feature - Westside Lights by WM Akers
From the publisher:
In the world of Westside, New York City is dying. A fence running the length of Broadway splits the island of Manhattan, separating the prosperous Eastside from the Westside—an overgrown wasteland hostile to modern technology. Thousands have disappeared here, and the respectable have fled, leaving behind the killers, thieves, poets, painters, drunks, and those too poor or desperate to leave. It’s a hellish landscape, and eccentric detective Gilda Carr proudly calls it home.
Gilda’s pursuit of tiny mysteries—"the little things that keep you up at night”—has dragged her to the brink of madness, so she spends 1923 searching for something that’s eluded her for years: peace. On the waterfront of the Lower West, Gilda and the gregarious ex-gangster Cherub Stevens start a new life on a stolen yacht. But their old life isn’t done with them yet.
They dock their boat on the edge of the White Lights District, where liquor, drugs, sex, and violence are shaken into a deadly cocktail. When her pet seagull vanishes into the District, Gilda throws herself into the search for the missing bird. It’s one of those little things that Gilda is perfectly suited for. Except, one night, while watching the river for her pet, Gilda passes out.
She wakes to a massacre.
Eight people have been slaughtered on the deck of the Misery Queen, and Cherub is among the dead. Gilda, naturally, is the prime suspect. Hunted by the police, the mob, and everyone in between, she must stay free long enough to find the person who stained the Hudson with her beloved’s blood. In W.M. Akers’s emotionally wrenching third novel, Gilda will discover that on her Westside, no lights are ever bright enough to drive away the darkness.
Book Feature - Westside Lights by WM Akers
