LAST DANCE BEFORE DAWN

Gangsters threaten a beloved speakeasy. Can a resourceful Jazz Age Baby save it?

Irish immigrant Vivian Kelly has found a second home in the Nightingale and a best friend in Beatrice Henry, a lively African American girl who also sings at the club and loves to dance the night away. It’s 1925 and Manhattan is red hot! One night, the girls witness new Nightingale employee Spence being attacked. When Vivian offers comfort, he rebuffs her. Over the next few days, more menacing men visit the Nightingale, led by crime kingpin Harlan O’Keefe. Vivian agonizes over whether to inform the alluring, androgynous Honor Huxley, who runs the Nightingale and has come close to seducing her. She fears that Honor will escalate the situation. Schellman has assembled a large and colorful cast over three previous Nightingale mysteries. While the threat of violence and chaos largely simmers in the background, she spends much of the story deepening the portraits of her large supporting cast, an understandable step in this final installment in the series. Chief among these characters is Vivian’s sister, Florence, who’s married with a young daughter and a flourishing dressmaking business. A major subplot involves Vivian’s attempts, two steps forward and one back, to forge a relationship with her long-absent father, Clyde Quinn. The murder of Nightingale muscle Silence amps up the tension and leads Vivian to appeal to the police commissioner, the uncle of her boyfriend, Leo Green. Schellman’s panoramic portrait particularly rewards series fans.

A lively, sprawling crime story that captures the vibrancy of the Roaring ’20s.