Title: The Wicked Redhead
Author: Beatriz Williams
Series: The Wicked City, #2
Published: December 2019, William Morrow
Format: Hardcover, 432 pages
Source: Publisher via TLC Booktours
Summary:
The dazzling narrator of The Wicked City brings her mesmerizing voice and indomitable spirit to another Jazz Age tale of rumrunners, double crosses, and true love, spanning the Eastern seaboard from Florida to Long Island to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1924. Ginger Kelly wakes up in tranquil Cocoa Beach, Florida, having fled south to safety in the company of disgraced Prohibition agent Oliver Anson Marshall and her newly-orphaned young sister, Patsy. But paradise is short-lived. Marshall is reinstated to the agency with suspicious haste and put to work patrolling for rumrunners on the high seas, from which he promptly disappears. Gin hurries north to rescue him, only to be trapped in an agonizing moral quandary by Marshall’s desperate mother.
1998. Ella Dommerich has finally settled into her new life in Greenwich Village, inside the same apartment where a certain redheaded flapper lived long ago…and continues to make her presence known. Having quit her ethically problematic job at an accounting firm, cut ties with her unfaithful ex-husband, and begun an epic love affair
with Hector, her musician neighbor, Ella’s eager to piece together the history of the mysterious Gin Kelly, whose only physical trace is a series of rare vintage photograph cards for which she modeled before she disappeared.
Two women, two generations, two urgent quests. But as Ginger and Ella track down their separate quarries with increasing desperation, the mysteries consuming them take on unsettling echoes of each other, and both women will require all their strength and ingenuity to outwit a conspiracy spanning decades.
My thoughts: This is the second book in Beatriz Williams’ Wicked City series and I have been so anxious for its release. I love this author’s writing and love nothing more than getting lost in her books and could not wait to start this one.
This latest installment picks up right where the previous book, The Wicked City, ends, so I’m so glad I decided to reread that one right before starting this one. It had been three years since I read The Wicked City and I’ve read a lot of other books since then. It was great reconnecting with Gin and Ella and getting back in that mindset and it made jumping into this new book a much easier transition. Now that’s not to say that you have to do the same thing (read the book right before reading this one) but I do suggest you at least read it at some point prior to picking this one up. Yes, the author does give some background but I think you will have a much richer experience if you read book 1.
One of the things I love most about Beatriz Williams’ novels is how she always manages to bring back characters from previous books into her current novels. Now I’m not just talking about the characters from The Wicked City. That is to be expected. I’m talking about characters from other books. If you are a super fan like I consider myself to be, you are used to this happening, knowing that Beatriz loves the characters she writes and so it is not unusual for a particular character to pop back up again in another book and that is what happens here. Do you have to have read all of her books to understand The Wicked Redhead – absolutely not. You will just appreciate all the minor characters a little bit more if you have.
Once again, much like in The Wicked City, our story is told in a dual narrative, alternating between 1998 and 1924. I was equally invested in both timelines, though the majority of the book does take place in 1924. I loved that both women, Gin in 1924 and Ella in 1998 have their own challenges to face. Both women have big decisions to make and I love that neither back down. Ella finally takes control over her life and it seems Gin seems to have less control but that doesn’t stop her from trying to make the best of a bad situation. These women are so strong and have such unique personalities that each time it came to switching back to the other point of view, I wanted to stay but I also wanted to be with the other…does that make sense? I really have come to love both characters and was desperate to know what was going to happen next with each character.
I also loved that while we do get some answers to the questions from book 1 in this installment, we are not given all the answers and in fact, we are left with many more questions along the way. Does that mean that there is another book in the works? Will the wait be long? Perhaps I will be rereading both book 1 and 2 if and when a book 3 comes out as it worked so well this time around.
Beatriz Williams is hands down a favorite author and I know when I pick up one of her books, I am going to be entertained and consumed by her story. And how cool that she gives nod to her writing partners in this book – if you read her other books, you will certainly pick up on this and if you don’t, no worries. Is anyone else excited for the next Williams, Willig and White book? Beatriz Williams, I adore your writing and recommend it to anyone who loves great historical fiction.
Books in this series:
- The Wicked City / reread – updated review
- The Wicked Redhead
About Beatriz Williams: A graduate of Stanford University with an MBA from Columbia, Beatriz Williams spent several years in New York and London hiding her early attempts at fiction, first on company laptops as a communications strategy consultant, and then as an at-home producer of small persons, before her career as a writer took off. She lives with her husband and four children near the Connecticut shore.
Author links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Purchase Links: HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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I really love when authors bring back characters from other books, it's like visiting old friends. Thank you for being on this tour. Sara @ TLC Book Tours