I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Westside Lights by W.M. AkersPublished by HarperCollins on March 8, 2022
Genres: fantasy, Fiction, Historical, Mystery & Detective, Private Investigators
Pages: 288
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: Netgalley
The Alienist meets the magical mystery of The Ninth House as W. M. Akers returns with the third book in his critically acclaimed Jazz Age fantasy series set in the dangerous Westside of New York City, following private detective Gilda Carr’s hunt for the truth—one tiny mystery at a time.
The Westside of Manhattan is desolate, overgrown, and dangerous—and Gilda Carr wouldn’t have it any other way. An eccentric detective whose pursuit of tiny mysteries has dragged her to the brink of madness, Gilda spends 1923 searching for something that’s eluded her for years: peace. On the revitalized 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, a new tenderloin 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. Up late watching the river for her pet, Gilda has one drink too many and passes out in the cabin of her waterfront home.
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. She will discover that on her Westside, no lights are bright enough to drive away the darkness.
So I didn’t realize, when I picked it up, that this book is the 3rd in a series. I haven’t read the first two. Maybe I wouldn’t have felt quite as lost if I had read those, but I didn’t, and here we are.
Much like Gilda with her lover, Cherub, I went through this book not knowing if I loved it or was indifferent to it. It’s been a few weeks since I finished it, and I’m still not sure. The world-building is sparse, the characters are intriguing but jerks, and everyone involved is fueled by self-interest, greed, or spite.
I read this, and I finished it — which is saying something, as I have no tolerance anymore for forcing myself to read things which I don’t want to — but I didn’t enjoy the process. Honestly, I think I only finished it because the main couple is interracial, because those kinds of stories are still rarer than I would like.
I do love the idea of Gilda being a detective of ‘tiny mysteries’. If she hadn’t been accused of doing it, she would never have taken on a case of mass slaughter. She’s much more desirous of investigating the mysterious disappearance of personalized pencils, something that actually happens in the book. I would have loved to have read THAT book, instead of this one with all the terrible, terrible people.
Bottom line? This book is well-written and populated by captivating characters, but I just didn’t have any fun with it.
