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A Dangerous Business

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Member Reviews

Jane Smiley has become, over the years, one of my favorite novelists. Unlike many, she never seems to write the same book twice, and her tone, pace, and setting are always a joy to watch unfold.

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A far cry from her Pulitzer Prize winning novel A Thousand Acres. This one is whimsical, silly and at times cringe-worthy. It's mid 1800's in Monterey CA and two prostitutes, Eliza and Jean. Stumble upon a dead girl while out on their leisurely stroll. Because they don't work during the day. They delve into Edgar Allen Poe detective novels, learning to be amateur sleuths. These characters were not believable which disappointed me. I like reading Smi,ey and will continue to do so but this one..... meh.

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⭐️/5. A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley. I struggled to finish this Nancy Drew-esque mystery set during the Gold Rush era. Eliza was married off to a bad fellow. When he gets shot dead in a saloon brawl, Eliza isn’t broken up. She turns to prostitution as a way to make ends meet. Suddenly, other working girls are turning up dead. Eliza and her friend Jean decide to solve this crime. They walk all over Monterey trying to figure out what happened. It seemed like all they did was walk. I had zero interest in the resolution of these crimes. Ugh. #bookstagram #reading #whatiread #bookgram #books #janesmiley #bookworm #netgalley #arc #libbyapp #goodreads

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A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley is an interesting look at prostitution and crime in Monterey in the 1800’s. The characters were likeable and sympathetic. The story starts simply, but quickly becomes intriguing. After a bit, there are too many questions and the reader has been captured. Jane Smiley has produced.a story that is seductively entrapping.

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Coming into A Dangerous Business as a fan of Jane Smiley's 100-year family saga, I was curious how she would approach the topic of prostitution and how women had to do one of three things to survive that era - marry well and hope, pray, wish, and wave a magic wand that he was a decent person; become a teacher even if teaching or kids were not your strong suit; or turn to prostitution and figure out a way to make life work on your own terms.

I thought she did a great job humanizing the women in the novel and even the men who visited the women. I loved this book, loved the feminist aspect and the objective manner in which women's rights and lack thereof were dealt with. I think it was brave of Smiley to tackle the subject of feminism and use prostitution as the vehicle in which to deal with women's lack of rights in the 1800s. I also loved all of the Edgar Allen Poe references!

Yes, I absolutely recommend this one...unfortunately, I think it takes a special reader to actually read this one and not be shocked or mortified by the prostitution angle.

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“Everyone knows that this is a dangerous business, but between you and me, being a woman is a dangerous business, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise..."

Jane Smiley, you are my spirit animal and I am so happy to have been introduced to your writing in A Dangerous Business.

Some authors just know how to resonate with their audience. They know exactly what it is to keep us interested and they go with it. It’s a natural talent and one that can’t be taught. Smiley. is just that, an author that is well loved amongst readers because she knows exactly what it is that we want .
A Dangerous Business was WILD!!! I loved that it took place in the 50s and I felt as though I was able to live in a different era and experience the changes that were made over time.

The expectations of women then to now is just mind blowing .

The character development was on point, the mystery was engaging and unpredictable and the writing style was fluid. This book has every key element to be a bestseller.

Kudos, to Smiley, I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Teaser :

Monterey, 1851. Ever since her husband was killed in a bar fight, Eliza Ripple has been working in a brothel. It seems like a better life, at least at first. The madam, Mrs. Parks, is kind, the men are (relatively) well behaved, and Eliza has attained what few women have: financial security. But when the dead bodies of young women start appearing outside of town, a darkness descends that she can't resist confronting. Side by side with her friend Jean, and inspired by her reading, especially by Edgar Allan Poe’s detective Dupin, Eliza pieces together an array of clues to try to catch the killer, all the while juggling clients who begin to seem more and more suspicious.

Eliza and Jean are determined not just to survive, but to find their way in a lawless town on the fringes of the Wild West—a bewitching combination of beauty and danger—as what will become the Civil War looms on the horizon. As Mrs. Parks says, "Everyone knows that this is a dangerous business, but between you and me, being a woman is a dangerous business, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise ..."

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A promising premise set in an interesting time and landscape that is crushingly boring, boring, boring. I guess there's a truth in reveling in the quotidian details of a woman's life in this way but GOD DAMN it makes for slow reading. I came here for a murder mystery, ma'am, and you're giving me how she hangs up a damp shawl after walking in the rain and, for real, what she eats every day for breakfast. Thank you, but no.

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Average. This was sort of a mystery and sort of a book about women in California in the 1850s. I was interested enough in the plot to listen to the end (audiobook) but I'm not sure I would recommend it.

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Jane Smiley never disappoints. I enjoyed this story, a little different for her, and look forward to her next one!

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I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

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Adore Jane Smiley, and very much enjoyed this flashback to 1850s Cali and the ways in which women manoeuvred to make a living and scratch out an existence in a less than kind time for them. There's a wonderful friendship at the heart of this, and a bit of a mystery. It might not all wrap up at the end, but it's a fun, educational, thought-provoking ride.

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Historical fiction/“mystery”. A quick read. Focused more on the business of prostitution with some convenient plot points,

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*A big thank-you to Jane Smiley, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
Set during the Gold Rush times in Monterey, the novel presents the position women had in those times and days through rather complicated lives of two women who are clever enough to realise how dangerous it is to be a female. This knowledge allows them to survive among men, which seems to be quite an achievement.
There is a mystery behind but I enjoyed the historical background most, together with descriptions of the place, which is where the Author resides.

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A Dangerous Business is a Western/mystery from a woman's perspective. Eliza is a pretty interesting character, widowed by the husband who beat her and moved her to a gold rush town, she very matter of factly becomes a prostitute. She seems fine with this and not a victim. Then as women start disappearing, she and her friend, who are learning about crime solving through reading Poe, investigate the murders and become convinced of the guilt of various clients.

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⭐⭐⭐⭐ -- Eye catching cover on this book.

This was such a fantastic read. I finished in 2 days! It was well written and well paced. The setting of 1850's Monterey, California was lovely and atmospheric. The characters were likable. The mystery element of the plot is why this wasn't a 5 star read. I felt that the murder mystery aspect was pretty weak. I would have liked to have seen that developed more. That said, i still enjoyed this one immensely. 👍🏻👍🏻

**ARC Via NetGalley**

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A reader could be forgiven for assuming the perilous business referred to in “A Dangerous Business” is the profession of the main character, Eliza, who takes up employment at a brothel in Monterey after her husband dies. But she finds her work pleasant compared to her marriage, and enjoys the steady income. It’s being a woman, generally, that’s dangerous.

Jane Smiley amicably and efficiently introduces Eliza in a matter of pages, from how she arrived in post-gold-rush California via the Midwest with a charlatan of a husband who quickly dies, to her present profession. Eliza is a reader, quite taken with “Mr. Poe,” and when several “girls” from local establishments such as her own go missing and are found murdered, Eliza follows in the model of Edgar Allan Poe’s famous detective, Dupin, from “The Murders of the Rue Morgue” to find the murderer.

Whether she’s studying footsteps in the mud or asking sailors about latitude lines, one of the many things that’s charming about Eliza is her eagerness to learn. She’s not afraid to admit she doesn’t know something and to seek out an answer. She’s also refreshingly open-minded, for 1851. When a fellow prostitute introduces herself and says she works at a brothel that serves only women, Eliza merely replies, “Ladies have the funds?” Although friendships between “girls” are discouraged, a lovely kinship builds between the young women, built on mutual admiration—Eliza greatly admires how Jean dresses as a man and moves easily through the town when she chooses to—and attempting to solve the murders.

Both women realize that no one in authority, such as it is in that moment, have any interest in pursuing the case. Perhaps they care too little, Jean and Eliza rationalized, “for girls in our line of work.” It confuses them, though, knowing that the service they offer is valuable, and that they themselves are so few, compared to the men in California. Why are they not treated more carefully? Why is the violent end of women in their community not treated with more alarm? But people seem to expect a certain amount of violence in this nearly lawless land. Even Eliza seems to shrug off the not-infrequent customers that have to be ejected from her room after violent eruptions.

In one cinematic scene, Eliza is eating breakfast when a fight breaks out, as soon as guns are drawn she’s slid out of her chair and under the table. Only Jean’s clientele are blessedly peaceful. “When my ladies come to me, almost all they want is affection, and time and relief from the diary round. Not one of them stares at their lower regions and gets disappointed or angry.” Eliza deals with plenty of customers who stare at their lower regions in disappointment and anger and deflects or overcomes obstacles with grace nightly.

Neither Jean nor Eliza really wish to be a detective like Dupin, but seeing that no one else is searching for clues, the women realize it’s up to them. Unfortunately for Eliza, she suspects nearly every man she meets, so narrowing the field isn’t easy. She’s frightened of what might happen, but she’s also excited. “The odd thing, she thought, was that she was both more afraid and more eager to see what would happen than she had been before she had set out for California. It was as if, for her whole life, she had been dumb and patient, like a milk cow.” Identifying the murder provides a sense of agency to Eliza that’s she’s never experienced before, pulling together her newfound independence, her natural intelligence, her partnership with Jean, and her knowledge garnered from Mr. Poe. She’s a remarkable character who faces the reality of the dangerous business she’s in and bravely walks on.

“A Dangerous Business”
By Jane Smiley
Knopf Publishing Group, 256 pages

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n A Dangerous Business, Jane Smiley has written an historical fiction set in Monterey California in the 1850s. The Gold Rush is still on in areas around Monterey and there is talk of national politics and the impact of slavery on the admission of new states.

But the immediate story is of Eliza Ripple, a young woman who moved to Monterey with her husband Peter, a man chosen by her parents who then decided to leave Michigan for California. He was an abusive husband who treated Eliza as his servant. When he was killed in a bar fight, Eliza’s first impulse was to feel freed. Shortly thereafter she realized she would never return to Michigan but would have to support herself. There were few choices in that place and time. After looking around the town, she approached Mrs. Parks at her brothel. The woman was friendly, she had a man to discourage drunks and violence, and the men were, for the most part, better than her husband had been.

The novel presents an interesting portrait of the port town and the variety of people traveling through or settling in the area. The clientele of the brothel also represent a cross section of the male population while the women of the town are largely at home, unseen, unless running an errand.

There is a mystery within the story, involving the deaths of several of the young women working at local brothels. There is a sheriff in town but he appears ineffective or unwilling to investigate. I found this aspect especially interesting in the ways it helped to define the woman that Eliza was becoming.

There is such ease in reading this book. Smiley writes so well. It appears without effort, the most difficult feat of all. I realize there are some books in the Smiley backlog that I need to read. Recommended as a good old fashioned yarn of the West and a view of a woman’s place in that very male society.

Thank you to Alfred A. Knopf and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

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Jane Smiley is an adventurous writer. She has retold Shakespeare’s King Lear in her novel, A Thousand Acres, and had talking animals in Perestroika in Paris. In this newest book, she again takes on interesting and unusual characters during the Gold Rush.

Young Eliza was married off by her parents to an older man whom they found to be respectable…if only! Not long thereafter, Eliza finds herself in California as a widow when her husband is killed in a fight. She does not want to go back to her small minded parents but instead finds a unique business opportunity. Eliza takes a job in a well run brothel. When women that she knows begin to disappear, Eliza and the brothel owner investigate. The book unfurls slowly as they figure things out.

A content warning: Some readers may not like some of the ways in which sex is discussed. Nothing too concerning but if a reader is very straitlaced, they may feel that this is objectionable.

Publishers Weekly gave this title a starred review and called it a “seductive entertainment.” I don’t quite agree. I did not absolutely love this one much as I wanted to.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for this title. All opinions are my own.

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This was such a brilliant story. I loved every second. It is definitely a page-turner story for me. It was so interesting. Not only do you have a murder mystery, but you also get to learn about slavery and the troubles it caused when some states were against it, but others were not. It was extremely well written for a short book at a little over 200 pages. The storyline was thrilling with plenty going on. The characters were brilliant, easy to connect with, and very interesting and realistic to the time. I just loved everything about this book. Being set in a brothel, I liked the way that it didn't go into any detail about their antics. This book was souly about this history. I definitely recommend reading this book if you love murder mystery and historical fiction. I must say how much I loved the ending. It certainly had me on the edge of my seat.

Only the highest of praise goes out to the author and publishers for creating such a wonderful story. I can't wait to read more from this wonderful author.

The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog today https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/a-dangerous-business-by-jane-smiley-knopf-doubleday-5-stars under my name ladyreading365

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I love Jane Smiley, but this wasn't my favorite. The plot and characters were lovely ad intriguing, but the prose was meandering.

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