The Best Bad Things is immensely fun and sexy and dangerous throughout. Jack Camp/Alma Rosales is one of the most intriguing and exciting characters that I have encountered in a novel in quite a long time. Though the tone and pacing were different, this book reminded me of Akwaeke Emezi's "Freshwater" in the way that I was just continually impressed by the novel's structure and Jack's/Camp's hunger and desire. This is not only one hell of an adventure, but I'm also deeply saddened to leave these characters behind.

Alma was a very unique character and I loved that. The book seemed slow in spots so it took a while to get through.

Thanks to Netgalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

If you were going to be a cross-dressing spy, do you think that you could be successful in hiding your true identity?

In The Best Bad Things by Katrina Carrasco, it’s 1887 and Alma Rosales has been dismissed as a Pinkerton Detective. Her former boss, Delphine, is the leader of a drug smuggling ring. Delphine hires Alma to find out who is stealing the drugs.

Alma decides to use the alias of Jack Camp and dress like a man to infiltrate the local drug organization. The only other person that knows that she is a woman is Mr. Wheeler, the boss of the local dock workers.

Apparently, she is just as convincing dressing as a man or as a woman. If it were me, I would be worried that I would get drunk and tell everyone all of my secrets.

It must have been hard for Alma to trust anyone, even Delphine. She’s in love with Delphine but doesn’t always like her plans. I think Alma also has a crush on Wheeler and vice versa. She likes to dress as a man but I’m not sure if she wants to be a man.

I can’t tell you how it ends but you won’t guess. I love it when I don’t guess the ending. It’s probably not going to end the way you think it would.



I received an ebook from NetGalley in exchange for doing a review. All opinions are my own. Obviously.

Carrasco has constructed a wonderful historic crime novel with a compelling and interesting central character: Alma Rosales. Looking forward to more adventures and writing from this author.

A fascinating slice of history involving the opium trade in the Victorian era Pacific Northwest, featuring badass protagonist, Alma Rosales/Jack Camp. As her alter ego, she poses as a dock worker for a local businessman, but she’s also searching for stolen opium for another boss, while sending coded reports to the Pinkerton Agency. The story is full of plots and sub-plots, double and triple crosses. The character of Alma was even more fascinating, she’s complex, violent, sexual, not a character normally seen in historical fiction, and I can’t exactly say I liked her, but I couldn’t stop reading her story either.

I could see this was audacious, but, gosh, despite its brilliance, it kept going back on itself, trying to be raw and get under skin of the sociopath, Amber, determined to be the neatest for Delphine, head (it appears) of a very successful opium snuggling run.. this eventually leads her to kill a cool customer we thought she was getting v attached to, a rival. In fact Rhett are so many risks, so much double dreaming and changing rules, I not only list track but reckon dry in. I think I'm the only one .. from other reviewers .. but the novelty of a woman's being evil or ambivalent about her romantic chances with another woman is taken as unusual.. hmm .. the writing is terrific, no doubt, but the repetitious need to prove herself just got overdone for me .. it seemed the focus rather than any over serving story .. maybe it's an attempt to do the Wire in a novel. So I'm iffy about it all.

A shape shifting Pinkerton operator in Port Townsend, before Washington became a state. Well written with much mystery and enough intrigue. Hopefully there will be more from this author in a series that promises originality and style.

"The Chameleon" … Karen Carrasco's debut novel is a beute … featuring the unlikely heroine, Alma Rosales. Half Scot and half Mexican, Alma has the unique talent of a chameleon … easily flitting between female and male persona. She is a master of costume, speech and dialect. Shifting easily between such characters as: Alma Macrae, Jack Camp and asorted others to accomplish the task at hand. Alma appears to be working for two employers with opposing interests.
The intrigue unfolds in 1887, primarily in Port Townsend, Washington … a major seaport rivaling the importance of that of San Francisco. There are ongoing campaigns to eradicate the widespread usage of opium … this has resulted in "tar" smoking going underground and fostering the necessity of smuggling opium into the US … mostly from China via Canada. Port Townsend sitting in the Puget Sound provides easy access for smuggling from Victoria, Vancouver … and then downward toward Seattle and Tacoma.
Alma is working for both sides …. meeting up and partnering with Delphine (aka "Sarah Powell") a beautiful and mysterious femme fatale who just happens to be the brains behind the smuggling operation … their salacious union is a another story. Alma recently was plying her talents as a private eye …. previously a disgraced female sleuth of the famous Pinkerton Agency. … part of the legendary Women's Bureau (initiated by the hiring of the first female detective in 1856). Delphine convinces her of the necessity of insinuating herself back into the Pinkerton Agency in order to counter their investigative endeavor into smuggling.
Carrasco expertly weaves a tortuous and twisted narrative with a cast of colorful fleshed out characters … that keeps the action and tension propelling forward with unexpected consequences. What results is a thoroughly satisfying and unique yarn, accented by her unique prose and settings.
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Books for providing me with an Uncorrected Proof of this historical fiction gem in exchange for an honest review.



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This historical thriller about a search for stolen opium in the Pacific Northwest starts with a beautiful, horrible, visceral punch to the gut and it does not let up. The protagonist, Alma Rosales, is so powerfully rendered that she practically leaps off the page. I see a great future the author and also for Alma.

There is not an adjective that Carrasco does not like. The over descriptions of every person, place and thing made this book drag on. A fight scene that could have been written in 3 pages went on for 8 pages. It turned a promising story into a wordy mess.

Inspired by one of the busiest seaports on the West Coast in the US, Townsend was a well-documented hot spot for smuggling in the late 1880’s. This makes it a perfect setting for a historical fiction novel with such a daring plot. Amidst the dirt of the trade, the characters are edgy, the scenes are explicit and the atmosphere reeks of dark, pungent alleys, infused with betrayal, espionage and murder.

From the Author’s Note:

San Francisco Chronicle, 1893: “The opium ring of the Northwest is a fearful, shadowy, impalpable something; shadowy in form, but most substantial in fact. It makes its presence known, yet it’s itself unknown. The subordinate members obey a system… [Directed by] some prominent citizen whose reputation in the commercial and social world is untainted….[U.S. government agents] are baffled and, watch as they will, they cannot find evidence enough to bring this man to justice.“

The first thing that stood out to me was the writing in this novel. It is razor sharp, undoubtedly descriptive to please the senses, and witty.

“Outside, everything feels tight and shiny, crowded with energy. Frost gilds the thrumming boardwalk. Candy-colored lanterns light the crowded mouths of pleasure houses. A saloon rattles with shouts and melodeon’s groaning.”
– Katrina Carrasco

“Green reek of kelp. Ship rigging rattles fifty feet out in the bay. She weaves through Lower Town, its shingles and piers coating the peninsula’s shore like a barnacle cluster. The road is humped with piled wooden crates and construction gear. The foundry’s furnaces suffuse the air with char.”
- Katrina Carrasco


Alma Rosales, the main character in this novel, goes undercover as Jack Camp, a dockworker. And she likes it too. Working for Delphine Beaumond, her former lover, she digs deep into the dark on goings in Port Townsend leaving no alley upturned in her craft. This role fits her well as she is trained in knifing, backstabbing plotting and…killing. Her role as Jack Camp, becomes her second skin. A role that also infuses her with desires and appetite.

“To lacquer on manhood, Alma starts with the hands. Gentlemen wear rings. A working man wears calluses. He leaves dirty fingerprints on newspapers, drops peanut shells in his path. His nails may or may not be bitten. In winter his knuckles crack with cold.”
- Katrina Carrasco

“Alma rakes her teeth over her lower lip. She is itching to see Nell, her body primed by the brawl. It’s a long-ingrained habit: fighting, then f…ing.”
- Katrina Carrasco

It does not take her long to figure out who is moving product and making the big bucks. The questions is, how? When some of the key players fall out of the game, it requires her to change tactic and establish alibies. As Jack Camp gets into brawls with henchmen and other interest groups, he almost bites the dust. Fueled with anger, can he frame the right person for the gain of his employer? Will Alma’s liking for certain characters jeopardize her decisions? Or is Jack Camp ultimately the pawn that’s at stake in this race to sell more opiates?

***

Alma’s bisexual character hovers between two identities, a first for me in a historical fiction novel.

“She is being two things at once. Grinning hard like Camp, chin up like Camp. She is in the gray space between identities and he sees her and she is lit up, spark filled, starving.”
- Katrina Carrasco

The title The Best Bad Things may elude to the power or the struggle of the character’s identity or what may be perceived as flaws during the 1880’s, but I cannot say for sure. It seems to me that Alma is more comfortable with herself then it is deemed proper in society at the time. She is actually rather full of vigor and zest spurred by her youth and desires for men and woman. She is confident in the moment when these strike. What I cannot emulate is that the explicit scenes are often a reaction to violent acts.

What I foremost enjoyed in this book is the striking, vivid writing. Although not consistently strong at all times, it is a whirlwind of a read. One is thrown right into the action and it almost never stops. This perhaps came at the expense of the character development as I would have liked to connect more with the main characters, but not much of tangible background was revealed; leaving all the big players somewhat two dimensional for my taste.

The scheme of the plot was brilliant and ever changing. As a reader it requires full attention to keep up with the cast and subplots. I may have missed a few things here and there, as it seems that at every page turn a different back-stab was lurking. Rereading some parts I highlighted with notes for this review made me dive right back and gain appreciation for different scenes of the action as it all came together at the end. Reading the epilogue again after the book, makes all sense now and is superbly befitting.

This book is definitely for the mature audience and those attracted to historical settings. The heroine was strong, clever and refreshing. Her indomitable spirit was unstoppable.

This was not for me. Alma Rosales was a completely unbelievable character, and I couldn't suspend my disbelief. I wanted to love this book and the description attracted me mostly because of Alma. She isn't like anybody I've read about before and that appealed to me--I'd love to read more with gender fluid characters of color in a different book. But beyond the almost superhuman protagonist (she can fight anybody and miraculously heal!), I wasn't into the writing style or the violence, especially sexual violence. Like I said, this just isn't for me.

Thanks Farrar, Straus and Giroux and netgalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

This is by far one of the grittiest, most profound, awesome, and action filled novel of the year. You won't be able to put this one down.

The cover pulls you in, the writing is great and characters interesting in this historical setting.
However, I just couldn't get into it. It was pretty slow at the start and maybe that's the magic of it - that we get to know the characters so well and sit in their heads for so long. Alma is a very interesting character, and there is a lot going on for her. However, it was hard to relate to her and her emotional side, maybe that's why I didn't fully enjoy this book...I would still recommend it to people though because it is a very vivid story.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I struggled with reading this and it has nothing to do with the writing or the author. It's very well written but it's just not my type of book and that's the only reason I found it hard going. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for approving me to read the book.

I gave up on this one about 30% through - the staccato writing style and the subject matter just didn't grab my attention and so I'm moving on. Keeping the book to consider coming back to in the future.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

Katrina Carrasco is a GREAT writer when it comes to imagery and character - so much so that despite the slow pace of the storyline so far, the images I've drawn up in my head are pretty spectacular. Your mileage may vary as far as the plot pace, but if you like period pieces that aren't afraid to go places others have not, and if you want to see more queer characters in good writing, you'll enjoy it.

At first I expected this to be a far "sexier" read, but the storyline is fairly slow-moving in this regard, too. In many ways, this is also a positive aspect, as it allows a reader to get a bit more into Alma/Jack's personality without immediately equating queerness simply with sex. Alma is definitely a very unique 'spirit' whose every move is suspenseful, a real enjoyable (s)hero to cheer on.

To start my review I must say-
I hope Katrina Carrasco makes Alma Rosales the protagonist in at least 5 more books. “The Best Bad Things” was one of those historical fiction books that shows you the underbelly of the world and makes you cringe when you think how far women have come (and how far we have to go). Alma ROCKS to put it lightly. She worked for the Pinkerton Detective Agency but may have been dismissed for some less than stellar things. She finds new work and spends the time straddling multiple worlds as a gender fluid person who knows they are in a time where being discovered could mean death.
The setting is Washington in 1887 and opium is legal...but still smuggled and sold illegally because the good stuff is never legal…Her new work finds her working to trace lost shipments, shady men, lust, and love…
Please let there be more Alma books. It was SOOO amazing to have a book talk about a time where discovery was so dangerous and yet people still lived and loved and fought to be true to themselves.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. People PRE-ORDER THIS BOOK!!!!
#TheBestBadThings #NetGalley

This book had a little something for everyone, historical references, sex, violence – SO MUCH VIOLENCE – and strong women who were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. It was a little slow in the beginning but not so much that I thought about abandoning it. I did have trouble getting past all the sentence fragments and found that I started to skip over what didn’t seem pertinent to the story. The plot got a little convoluted and I had trouble keeping up with all the secondary characters and who they worked for.

I really liked Alma and the idea that she was so resourceful and courageous. She was a little like the Tony Soprano of the 1880’s, you know you should dislike her because of the bad things she does, but you just can’t. And as Camp she didn’t back down from a fight with any man. The fight scenes were so well written that some were hard to read because I couldn’t imagine a woman taking that kind of punishment. But it would be wrong to overlook Delphine because she was a successful woman without having to get her hands dirty. She found other people to do her dirty work and managed to keep them always wondering what her next move would be. And they both were operating in what was clearly a man's world.

I won’t give away the ending, but it was disappointing although not out of character for Alma. I would recommend this and hope the author writes another book in this series. Thanks to Net Galley, the author and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book and provide feedback.

This book was well written and very fun to read. The characters were great and I enjoyed the world building. The author does a great job at introducing the characters and moving the plot along. There were a few things that I didn't like, but it wasn't enough to really sway me one way or the other. It's definitely a story that I can get lost in and both feel for the characters. It is definitely a go-to novel that I highly recommend to anyone who loves a great read. Definitely a highly recommended read that I think everyone will enjoy.