Elodie Brown lives in Chicago with her widowed mother and four sisters. She and her friend Bernice Barker work in the biggest and newest building in Chicago. Elodie feels particularly lucky to be working at all - jobs are not easy to come by in Chicago in 1931. Elodie writes advertising copy but more than anything wants to get into radio. She has this great idea for a new radio show and wins an in-house competition which results in her being promoted to work with two writers to script the show.
Although elated at her new promotion, Elodie is uneasy about an incident she heard when one night working late, she mistakenly got out of the elevator at floor ten. Should she, she asks her friend Bernice, tell the police? Bernice, who works on floor ten, scoffs at the idea and says Elodie has too much imagination. She tells her about a big party her boss Lee Chang is holding at his house on Saturday night. Barbara Hutton will there, one of Mr Chang’s best customers. Lee Chang imports antiques and jade. Bernice persuades Elodie to serve at the party to earn some extra money.
Elodie pushes the incident to the back of her mind until at lunch the next day Bernice tells her that a Mr Webster is missing and the police have been all over floor ten questioning everyone. Elodie is again plunged into doubt about what she heard. But when the sleek black Cadillac limousine arrives to take her to the party all other thoughts fly away. The party is everything Bernice said it would be. Then, during the course of the evening, just as Lee Chang is about to display his wonderful pieces of jade, a man stumbles into the room. He has been stabbed and as he dies he shouts something that sounds like ‘Mingdow’.
Lieutenant Archie Deacon is assigned to the case. He interviews Elodie but does not appear to take her seriously, so Elodie sets out to find out what ‘Mingdow’ means, putting herself and others into great danger.
The depression setting and Chinese plot makes for a fascinating mystery, but coupled with the story of Elodie and her family, and her new venture into writing a radio series, this makes a dynamic compelling read. The interplay and dialogue between Elodie and the two writers, world-weary Drew Wilson and Sal Schultz, is quite simply wonderful.
This is the start of a series and I cannot wait for the next book. Very highly
recommended.
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Lizzie Hayes
This is Paula Gosling writing as Holly Baxter.