Westside

March 25, 2019
Set in an alternate 1920s Manhattan where a 13-mile fence divides the thriving Eastside from a nightmarish Westside, Akers’s highly entertaining debut introduces Gilda Carr, a street-savvy PI. A Westsider, Gilda specializes in solving “tiny mysteries,” but her search for a woman’s missing glove leads her straight into the center of a looming war and offers up clues that could resolve such troubling issues as what magic is turning the Westside into a living hell, where thousands of people have disappeared and landscapes change overnight, and what happened to her father, a legendary gang leader turned cop who vanished years earlier. A cast of meticulously developed and memorable characters as well as strong worldbuilding and atmospherics more than compensate for the sometimes flimsy supernatural thread. Memorable prose is a plus (“The white lights of Broadway shimmered through the gin like gasoline in gutter water”). Fans of genre-bending fiction will relish this inventive mix of mystery and the paranormal. Agent: Sharon Pelletier, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.

April 1, 2019
Akers' debut novel is an addictively readable fusion of mystery, dark fantasy, alternate history, and existential horror. Gilda Carr is a 27-year-old private investigator living on the Westside of a 1921 Manhattan that is divided by miles of barbed-wire fence running down Broadway. The heavily guarded partition separates the Eastside from its otherworldly neighbor to the west, where thousands of people have inexplicably vanished over the years and strange occurrences--like disappearing doorways in homes--have become commonplace. Carr specializes in solving "tiny mysteries," but when she agrees to find a woman's lost leather glove she becomes entangled in a much larger--and more dangerous--mystery, involving ruthless crime lords, bootlegged moonshine, and a looming turf war that could kill hundreds. Carr's own missing father--a legendary brawler-turned-NYPD detective--is strangely connected to many of the key players. As the fearless Carr uncovers more secrets, she also begins to understand what happened to her presumably dead father--and why. The seamless blending of genre elements creates a fresh and unpredictable narrative, but the real power here comes from Akers' focus on description throughout. Masterful worldbuilding, character development, and attention to dark atmospherics make for a fully immersive read in which even secondary characters are memorable. An elevator operator, for example is portrayed as having "skin the color of raw kielbasa," and the elevator ride to a hotel's penthouse is powered by sublime imagery: "[Jazz] music echoed down the elevator shaft like far-off guns--intoxicating, dangerous, and impossible to resist." The cast of deeply developed characters and the richly envisioned setting are perfectly complemented by a breakneck-paced and action-packed storyline. It's like a literary shot of Prohibition-era rotgut moonshine--bracing, quite possibly hallucination-inducing, and unlike anything you've ever experienced before. The illegitimate love child of Algernon Blackwood and Raymond Chandler.

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Starred review from May 1, 2019
A fence divides Manhattan into the prosperous Eastside and the dangerous Westside. Westside has always been the place where strange, almost supernatural occurrences happen. When people start to disappear, residents worry, but the authorities do nothing. Longtime Westside resident Gilda Carr specializes in tiny mysteries. When she is approached by society lady Edith Copeland to find the match to the glove she lost, Gilda takes the case. Little does she know that this tiny mystery will lead her to the discovery of a shadowy underworld, multiple attempts on her life, and the possible answer to her father's disappearance. Akers has created a believable alternate-1920s New York City, full of bootleggers, jazz babies, and corrupt cops as well as some potentially supernatural creatures. The villains are larger than life but believably human in their greed and selfishness. Like the best reluctant heroes, Gilda is as quick with a quip as she is with her trigger finger. Full of action and colorful characters, this genre mash-up is expertly done and will be enjoyed by fans of mysteries and fantasy alike.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)