Review: The Orchid Hour by Nancy Bilyeau

Blurb

New York City, 1923. Zia De Luca’s life is about to be shattered.

Having lost her husband to The Great War, she lives with her in-laws in Little Italy and works at the public library.

But when a quiet poetry-lover is murdered outside the library, the police investigation focuses on Zia.

After a second tragedy strikes even closer to home, Zia learns that both crimes are connected to a new speakeasy in Greenwich Village called The Orchid Hour.

When the police investigation stalls, Zia decides to find her own answers. A cousin with whom she has a special bond serves as a guide to the shadow realm of The Orchid Hour, a world filled with enticements Zia has shunned up to now.

She must contend with a group of players determined to find wealth and power in New York on their own terms. In this heady atmosphere, Zia begins to wonder if she too could rewrite her life’s rules.

As she’s pulled in deeper and deeper, will Zia be able to bring the killers to justice before they learn her secret?

My Review

This book is outside of my normal historical period; in fact, I know little about the 20th century underworld. But I do know that Nancy Bilyeau writes a lively story, and I wasn’t disappointed. Our protagonist, Zia, is a soon-to-be street-wise Italian gal who is just beginning to get an itch for liberation. Her husband was killed in the war, leaving her with a son and a dependence on her in-laws, which doesn’t sit well once she inadvertently finds herself involved in a suspicious murder. To make matters worse, because of her involvement, her father in-law is murdered and she feels responsible. Discovering a not-so-coincidental tie between the murder, her cousin Sal, and the New York gangsters, Zia decides to get to the bottom of the situation by getting a job at Sal’s upcoming Orchid Hour nightclub—though the family is not to know. We’re in the middle of the Prohibition, remember:

“Sal, I’d like a job at The Orchid Hour.”
My cousin laughed for a few seconds before looking closer. “You’re not kidding. Zia? Oh, c’mon, that’s ridiculous. It’s a nightclub. You go to bed by ten, right? We’re gonna open at eleven.”
“I can stay up late. And I was a waitress the summer before I got married, remember? At the De Paulo Coffee Shop on Grand. I could be a waitress at The Orchid Hour.”

To say Zia is playing with fire is an understatement, but she’s a clever gal and Sal is looking out for her. This story takes us on a merry chase, where we see the fledgling Cotton Club, among many other sordid joints that barely merit the name nightclub. At least the Orchid Hour has class, and Zia develops a taste for a world she has never encountered before. This book is full of imagery and atmosphere, and we get a solid peek at the beginning of the Prohibition counter-culture, along with the corruption that goes all the way to the top.