The Wicked Redhead

November 15, 2019
Williams' follow-up to The Wicked City (2017) continues the Prohibition-era adventures of a young woman torn between two brothers. We last saw titular redhead Geneva "Ginger" Kelly on the lam with her new boyfriend, Prohibition agent Oliver Anson, after a violent altercation with Appalachian bootleggers, including Ginger's villainous stepfather, Duke Kelly, who died in the melee. Another casualty of that violence, Oliver's younger brother, Billy, jaw shattered by Duke's brass knuckles, is now under the care of the brothers' mother, the imperious blueblood Mrs. Marshall. This novel opens as Oliver and Ginger have taken refuge in Cocoa Beach, Florida, with the Fitzwilliams, whom readers will recall from another Williams series (Cocoa Beach, 2017, etc.). In a continuing storyline from the first installment, Ella Gilbert, in 1998, is trying to sort out her love life with soul mate Hector, particularly now that she's learned she's pregnant by her soon-to-be-ex hubby, Patrick. Ella's story is still tangential to Ginger's tale despite stronger hints of linkages between the two women. Since nothing much is going on in Florida except an ominous, too-brief introduction to the armada of rum-running vessels lurking just outside coastal waters, the action (such as it is) shifts to the Marshalls' Manhattan and Southampton manses. Mrs. Marshall, aware that Ginger and Billy were once lovers, has summoned Ginger to help with Billy's recovery--by pretending to be his pregnant fiancee. Unhelpfully, Ginger's soul mate, Oliver, has gone back undercover and is oddly cold toward her. Ginger's first-person voice, that of a feisty hillbilly-turned-Manhattan flapper, is authentic enough, if a bit stilted, as if too much research had gone into imagining her argot. And Ginger's mental observations are recounted with a degree of detail that, while fulfilling its intended effect of re-creating the period and social milieu, does little to advance the story. There really is no throughline here--this novel is largely an extended anticlimax to Volume 1. After 400-plus pages, many loose ends remain, perhaps auguring a third book. A seemingly superfluous sequel.

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November 15, 2019
Williams' follow-up to The Wicked City (2017) picks up immediately where the action of its predecessor left off. In 1924, flapper Gin Kelly is in Florida with her ex-Prohibition-agent beau, Oliver Anson Marshall, on the run from authorities and bootleggers alike. Soon enough, however, they are back in New York, Anson having been reinstated to his position with suspicious haste, even as it becomes clear that someone still wishes both Anson and Gin harm. Meanwhile, in 1998, Ella Dommerich has just commenced a love affair with her musician neighbor, Hector, even as she attempts to put her odious ex-husband behind her and learn more about a certain redheaded flapper who appears in a mysterious vintage photograph. Unlike the rest of Williams' work, readers' enjoyment of this will be dependent on their familiarity with the preceding book. However, for her legion of fans, the fast-paced action, romantic intrigue, and period details will be sure to please, even if occasionally cariacaturish characterization and an overreliance on 1920s vernacular make this slightly weaker than her usual offerings.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

November 22, 2019

In the Jazz Age 1920s, Ginger Kelly, an audacious flapper, her sister, Patsy, and Ginger's boyfriend Oliver Anson Marshall, a disgraced Prohibition agent, flee New York for Florida. When Oliver is hastily reinstated by the agency and sent on a mission, he disappears. In his absence, Ginger and Patsy are lured back to New York by Oliver's mother, a woman with ulterior motives, who drives a very hard bargain. In 1998, Ella, pregnant and separated from her cheating husband, moves into an old Greenwich Village apartment and unexpectedly finds love with neighbor Hector. With her ordered life now in disarray, Ella goes in search of the woman who once resided in her apartment, captured in a vintage photograph titled "Redhead Beside Herself." Williams (Cocoa Beach) uses a dual-narrative approach to draw parallels between the two women. Ginger is the predominant character, while Ella, who lives a bit vicariously through Ginger, is a conduit between past and present. Ginger truly shines, but, unfortunately, the remaining characters are underdeveloped. VERDICT A few tense moments of suspense and high-seas adventure liven up an otherwise lethargic plot in this sequel to the first book in the series, The Wicked City. [See Prepub Alert, 5/20/19.]--Julie Whiteley, Stephenville, TX

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2019

In Williams's The Wicked City, recently divorced Ella Gilbert moves into a Greenwich Village apartment building that once housed a notorious speakeasy and discovers the story of red-haired, fast-talking flapper Geneva "Gin" Kelly, originally from Appalachia. (Ghostly music from the basement helped Ella find Gin.) Their intertwined stories continue here, as Ella seeks to pull further away from her ex, finding love with Hector, the musician upstairs, and Gin is separated from the Prohibition agent with whom she has fallen in love. With a 50,000-copy paperback and 25,000-copy hardcover first printing.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.