The Wicked City

When Ella Gilbert discovers her husband’s cheating, she escapes to a studio apartment in Greenwich Vil-lage. Her neighbor warns her to stay out of the basement after midnight, when mysterious noises strike up—laughter, clinking glasses, jazz piano, the occasional bloodcurdling scream—even though it’s stood empty for decades. Back in the Roaring Twenties, the place hid a speakeasy.

In 1924, Geneva “Gin” Kelly, a quick-witted flapper from the hills of western Maryland, is a regular at this Village hideaway known as the Christopher Club. Caught up in a raid, Gin lands in the office of Prohibition enforcement agent Oliver Anson, who persuades her to help him catch her stepfather Duke Kelly, one of Appalachia’s most notorious bootleggers.

As Ella unravels the history of the building—and the family thread that connects her to Geneva Kelly—she senses the Jazz Age spirit of her predecessor invading her own shy nature, in ways that will transform her life in the wicked city . . .