In the midst of Prohibition, Jimmy Quinn joins forces with screen siren Fay Wray to take on a King Kong–size case of extortion.
It’s March 2, 1933. King Kong is premiering at Radio City Music Hall, and Fay Wray is about to become the most famous actress on earth. So what's she doing hanging around a rundown Manhattan speakeasy? This Hollywood scream queen has come to see Jimmy Quinn, a limping tough guy who knows every gangster in New York—and does his best to steer clear of them all.
A blackmailer has pictures of a Fay Wray lookalike engaged in conduct that would make King Kong blush, and Fay's movie studio—with the cooperation of a slightly corrupt NYPD detective—wants the threat eliminated. Jimmy tries to settle the matter quietly, but stopping the extortion will cut just as deeply as Fay's famous scream, ringing from Broadway all the way to Chinatown.
Jimmy and Fay is the 3rd book in the Jimmy Quinn Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
Now, I'm normally a bit of a snob when it comes to my insistence on reading things in order. I get a bit of a twitch if I knowingly skip over part of a series. I hadn't realized when I first requested Michael Mayo's Jimmy and Fay on NetGalley that it's the third Jimmy Quinn book. I hadn't realized it until I had started to read it and felt like maybe I was missing a little something about how Jimmy came to by a speakeasy owner during Prohibition who helps both the mob and the police.
Ellis's nasty smile disappeared and before I could name names, he jumped in. "I'm just saying that where the law in concerned, Quinn works both sides of the street. Hell, he runs a speakeasy. He has dealings ever day with guys who are not one hundred percent legit. They trust him, and I can promise you that he won't run off with your money. That's about all you can ask for in a go-between." (5%)A handful of pages later and there were a couple of previous investigations mentioned. I started to twitch, did some digging, started to curse over it being the third and having the first two not listed in my library system, and considered putting the book down until I came across the others.
But I couldn't. Jimmy Quinn and his associates took me hostage from the get-go and wouldn't let me go.
Have I ever told you that I have a huge weakness for 1930s gangsters? Luciano, Capone, Siegel ... the whole beautiful crooked dirty bunch of them. Add to that my huge love of movies from the time and my love of mysteries? It's really not much of a surprise that Jimmy and Fay hooked me early and before long the twitch of skipping the first two books went away and I just went along for the fabulous ride.
It's a fun tale with details so vivid it's almost as if it's in Technicolor. I could easily see a tv series based on Jimmy Quinn and his associates becoming a huge hit and filling the void left when Boardwalk Empire ended. Until that happens, though, I'll just kick back and lose myself in the books -- especially since I just placed my order for the first two to be shipped to me.
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