barbara fister reviewed Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley
Review of 'Dangerous Business' on 'LibraryThing'
A young widow who has found a comfortable way of making a living in a well-run and not-too-demanding brothel in mid-19th century California, works with her friend to find out who has been killing women and getting away with murder because really, who cares? Inspired by Poe's Dupin, they rely on logic and observation to crack the case.returnreturnI have mixed feelings about this novel. There are some aspects of it as historical fiction that I enjoyed - the setting is quite interesting, and the protagonist is often interesting company in her observations. The pace, considering the subject matter, is leisurely and ... oh, look, a butterfly. returnreturnSometimes crime fiction has serious literary chops, and sometimes a historical mystery pays more attention to history than mystery, and that can be fine. (Consider Naomi Hirohara's Clark and Division, a decent mystery that gracefully took a backseat to the work of vividly …
A young widow who has found a comfortable way of making a living in a well-run and not-too-demanding brothel in mid-19th century California, works with her friend to find out who has been killing women and getting away with murder because really, who cares? Inspired by Poe's Dupin, they rely on logic and observation to crack the case.returnreturnI have mixed feelings about this novel. There are some aspects of it as historical fiction that I enjoyed - the setting is quite interesting, and the protagonist is often interesting company in her observations. The pace, considering the subject matter, is leisurely and ... oh, look, a butterfly. returnreturnSometimes crime fiction has serious literary chops, and sometimes a historical mystery pays more attention to history than mystery, and that can be fine. (Consider Naomi Hirohara's Clark and Division, a decent mystery that gracefully took a backseat to the work of vividly recreating a time and place.) But somehow the parts of this novel didn't sit easily together for me, and the history itself seemed sometimes to be experienced by a twenty-first century time traveler. At any rate, I enjoyed it, somewhat, but felt overall dissatisfied, perhaps because I expected something more substantial from the author, even if it the mystery element were not front and center.
