A Dangerous Business

(Paperback, Large Print Edition)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning,best-selling author of A Thousand Acres:An amazing mash-up of a Western, a serial-killer mystery and a feminist-inflected tale of life in a bordello (The Washington Post).

In 1850s Gold Rush California twoyoung prostitutes, best friends Eliza and Jean, attempt to find their way in a lawless townon the fringes of the Wild Westabewitching combination of beauty and dangeras what will become the Civil War looms on the horizon.

Everyone knows that this is a dangerous business, but between you and me, being a woman is a dangerous business, and dont let anyone tell you otherwise..."

Monterey, 1851. Ever since her husband was killed in a bar fight, Eliza Ripple has been working in a brothel. It seems like a better life, at least at first. The madam, Mrs. Parks, is kind, the men are (relatively) well behaved, and Eliza has attained what few women have: financial security. But when the dead bodies of young women start appearing outside of town, a darkness descends that she can't resist confronting. Side by side with her friend Jean, and inspired by her reading, especially by Edgar Allan Poes detective Dupin,Eliza pieces together an array of clues to try to catch the killer, all the while juggling clients who begin to seem more and more suspicious.

Eliza and Jean are determined not just to survive, but to find their way in a lawless townon the fringes of the Wild Westabewitching combination of beauty and dangeras what will become the Civil War looms on the horizon. As Mrs. Parks says, "Everyone knows that this is a dangerous business, but between you and me, being a woman is a dangerous business, and dont let anyone tell you otherwise ..."

Reviews

Winner of the Society of American Historians Prize for Historical Fiction

A Must-Read Book in USA Today, Chicago Review of Books, Bookstr, Los Angeles Magazine, PopSugar, Crime Reads, Alta Online, AV Club A Best Gift Book in Good Housekeeping and Vanity Fair

Compulsively readable . . . Jane Smiley hasaddedanother star to her crownas one of the greatAmerican writers for today orany day. She has gifted us with fully realized, unforgettable characters we want to keep knowing,ataut plot,andahistorical setting that comesalive toall our senses. Dare we hope forasequel Or evenaseries
prize citation from Society ofAmerican Historians

Now heres something you dont come across every day: a mash-up of a Western, a serial-killer mystery and a feminist-inflected tale of life in a bordello. But Jane Smileys A Dangerous Business is all thatand, amazingly, it works . . . Smiley smoothly melds three distinct narratives into one without breaking a sweat.
Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post

Its refreshing to read this taut tale . . . Enough interesting characters enter and exit Elizas brothel bedroom to justify a series of novels. If anything like A Dangerous Business, theyd be fine stories indeed.
Associated Press

Jane Smiley paints such vivid imagery with her language that its easy for her novels to conjure memories of various movies and television . . . A Dangerous Business brings to mind the likes of McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Deadwood . . . Hard not to think of David Lynchs Mulholland Drive. But the book remains Smiley through and through, with clarity, deceptive wit and moral compass working at the service of a larger idea . . . A Dangerous Business is as much a tale of self-actualization as it is a murder mystery. Being a woman may be a dangerous business, but for Eliza and Jean, that just makes it more fun to push against societal boundaries.
USA Today

An entertaining, light murder mystery . . . A theme running through most of Smileys workincluding A Dangerous Businessis that lives are a mixture of good luck and bad, best navigated by improvising and remaining light on ones feet . . . Elizas determination to see the larger picture opens up the world to her. She is a young woman trying to define herself in a young country doing the same.
Heller McAlpin, NPR.org

Darkly delightful . . . A remarkable book, one that is hard to categorize. Is it a whodunnit Yes, certainly. But it is also a nifty piece of historical fiction . . . Smiley excels here at bringing all the female characters, even those who barely make an appearance, to vibrant life.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Perhaps her most provocative and engaging novel yet . . . A Dangerous Business is a slim but thrilling tale, and Smiley once again strikes a perfect balance by combining a sex-positive story and a classic mystery in a progressive way.
Shondaland

Anaffectingaccount ofayoung woman coming into her own . . . Smiley isaBalzac of the wide open spaces . . . This is no small thing, we have Elizaand Jean. Their pluck, their grit, most ofall their ineffable belief in the power of books, make ADangerousBusiness matter.
Wall Street Journal

Deftly constructed . . . Smiley has created several engaging characters. She vividly recalls the political uproar of the 1850s . . . Her wry sense of humor isabright thread . . . ADangerousBusiness achieves the goal ofall worthy historical novels: openingawindow to the past, forcing comparisons to the present, raising unsettling questionsabout how much has really changed.
LosAngeles Times

EdgarAllan Poe meets California gold country.
Vanity Fair

Smiley clearly knows her wayaroundastory. ADangerousBusiness brims with delightful little touches . . . Smileysability to deliver salient social commentary wrapped in suchan inviting murder mystery shows that just because the gamesafoot, doesnt mean you need to bludgeon your readers with criminal minds, blood,and guts . . . Beingawoman isadangerousbusiness [is] the novels real message,and it is one that isas resonant in the wildness of Smileys 1850s Wild Westas it is in todays United States.
Boston Globe

Fascinating . . . Smiley has craftedadangerousworld for our heroinesfrom the lawlessness of the Wild West to the rumblings ofanapproaching Civil Warbut this novel balances that danger withastriking beauty.
Chicago Review of Books

Agripping mystery set in gold rush California . . . Engrossing.
Alta Online

Entertaining.
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Readers wont beable to put this one down.
PopSugar

Pulitzer-winning Smileys evocative sense of place and nuanced exploration of womens roles in nineteenth-century American life nicely complement the portrait of Eliza and her determined effort to forge her own path . . . Highly recommended.
Booklist (starred)

A remarkable story of the California gold rush and a pair of sex worker sleuths . . . The vivid historical details and vibrant characters bring Smileys setting to glorious life. This seductive entertainment is not to be missed.
Publishers Weekly (starred, boxed)

Jane Smiley has a book coming out later this year that is superb, now you know.
Rumaan Alam, via Twitter

The forthcoming Jane Smiley novel, A Dangerous Business, is so outstanding. Her sentences are sublime.
Roxane Gay, via Twitter

Author Bio

JANE SMILEY is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and the Last Hundred Years Trilogy: Some Luck, Early Warning, and Golden Age. She is the author as well of several works of nonfiction and books for young adults. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she has also received the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature. She lives in Northern California.