“Being a woman is a dangerous business, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise”. The novel is set in Monterey Ca. In 1851, and the main characters are 2 prostitutes on a mission to solve the murders of other women in the same profession. I have mixed feelings about this read -it is more novel than mystery, and for my tastes was too slow paced and confusing geographically. It is an interesting look at the state of the country pre-civil war and the slave/ free state debate.

I'm a fan of Jane Smiley but this novel was not her best. Although the descriptions of northern CA were wonderfully crystal clear, the story failed to capture me, but it may compel other readers who appreciate mysteries.

In lawless Monterey CA of the 1850's, life was not easy for young widow Eliza, but she has made the best of her situation by working in a brothel run by a benevolent proprietor. Eliza hears about young prostitutes going missing, but no one else, including the sheriff, seems to care enough to find out their fate. With her new friend Jean, Eliza determines to follow the example of Dupin, Poe's detective, to solve the disappearances and murders, but in the process she becomes suspicious of many of her clients. This historical mystery struck me as somewhat slow-starting, but the setting and development of the character of Eliza propelled the plot forward.

I had no expectations going into this book and was pleasantly surprised the whole way through. It was intense without being intense, it was graphic without being graphic and it was a mystery without being a mystery. A definite interesting read good for something different.

Ahhh! How I have misses the wonderful prose of Jane Smiley. And this nook doesn't disappoint.. When Eliza is forced into a life that she desperately doesn't want to be a part of the story comes alive. A look at womanhood, innocence, redemption and life. This would make a wonderful book club read!

So much to discuss with this one - go read this one so we can talk! A Dangerous Business is a title that lends itself to many interpretations within this book. Jane Smiley is brilliant as she crafted this novel to pose that question - what’s a dangerous business for a woman? Loved the Poe references made throughout as well as the themes of gender v sex and power. So much to think about and discuss which I’m sure I’ll be doing for some time. Thanks to Knopf Doubleday for the advanced copy!

Eliza Ripple is a naive eighteen-year-old girl whose parents force her to wed a young man visiting her hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan. He projects wealth and ambition, so they feel their daughter will be well-cared for. The couple moves to Monterey, California, as the 1848 Gold Rush is winding down. Eliza’s husband demeans her and essentially expects her to be his slave. Thus, when her hot-tempered husband is killed in a bar fight, Eliza spends no time mourning him. She refuses to return to the harsh winters of Michigan and her Bible-thumping family. With few viable options, she joins Mrs. Park’s brothel and has an easier life than she did with her husband—with the additional benefit of becoming financially independent.

Eliza builds relationships with other women, and they keep each other safe. At Mrs. Park’s, Eliza sees one or two clients a day and a bouncer provides physical protection. In addition, Mrs. Park “bans” undesirable men. Her best friend Jean is a lesbian who enjoys dressing in men’s clothing, and thus provides a “male escort” when Eliza needs on.

Eliza is unsophisticated and poorly educated, but that doesn’t hinder her. She reads avidly and when her sailor clients teach her about the equator, longitude, and latitude, and the many places they’ve traveled, she absorbs the knowledge like a sponge.

Things take a turn for the worse when Eliza discovers the body of a murdered young woman in a creek just outside of town. As women continue to disappear and local law enforcement refuses to seriously investigate, Eliza and Jean team up to investigate. They readily admit they have no idea what they are doing, but they do have a text book of sorts: Edgar Allen Poe’s tales featuring the detective C. Auguste Dupin. The women learn to think logically and look for clues. Eliza learns to observe people, especially men, knowing that at times her ability to predict their actions might save her life.

Jane Smiley's writing is smooth and flowing. She evokes beautifully the time of the Gold Rush and the character of Monterey. Her characters are interesting and likable. I particularly enjoyed her depiction of prostitution as just another job to go to then come home and get some rest.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A story about a young woman alone in desperate times.

While I have enjoyed some of Jane Smiley's novels (notably Moo!), this one is not for me. There is nothing wrong with it, but there is nothing to recommend it either. The writing is serviceable. The is a plot though nothing particularly notable (murdered prostitutes), the characters realistic but basic. Fans of historical fiction may find this title more appealing than I did.

Jane Smiley is a master of character development and prose. Her most recent novel, A Dangerous Business, is no exception. Set in Monterey, CA during the gold rush we meet Eliza Ripple who is working as a prostitute. Her husband, who brought her to California, was shot and killed in a bar fight, so Eliza was left on her own to figure out how to survive. It turns out the Eliza is much happier on her own, and feels safer as a prostitute than she did with her husband. She enjoys the freedom of being a woman on her own, and also seems to enjoy her work. She works for a woman who ensures that the men who come to her establishment are of a certain standard and her girls are safe. When some of the women start to show up murdered however, Eliza begins to worry.
She eventually befriends a woman, Jean and together they decide to try to solve the murders. They are both avid readers, and try to emulate Poe's Dupin as they observe the crime scenes, and analyze the evidence that is in front of them.
The story moves along well and is engaging, but I found the reveal of the murder mystery to be a little rushed and not very suspenseful. Smiley does definitely hit her point home that being a woman is a dangerous business. She shows us that no matter when, women have had to be careful, cunning and intelligent to get by, Both Eliza and Jean are strong female heroines, who certainly do not need men to help them solve the mystery. In fact, they solve it in spite of men who are more than happy to just sweep the whole thing under the rug.
Smiley has given us a story about survival, friendship and self discovery. It is a very pleasant read.

An incredibly thought provoking new novel from her here. Her characters are so well drawn out, that I truly felt like I was living the narrative alongside them. The writing is beautiful, and evocative and makes the pages fly, Can't wait to sell this!

Solid historical fiction. With a good story and interesting characters, I enjoyed this story of Eliza and Jean just before the Civil War.

Thanks very much for the free review copy!!

Jane Smiley clearly had a blast spinning A DANGEROUS BUSINESS--and so will the reader. A touch of suspense, a dollop of history and a rollicking sense of humor light up every page. Highly recommended.

My thanks to Knopf Doubleday and to Netgalley for the opportunity and pleasure of an early read.

Being a prostitute is a danger business; being a woman is a dangerous business.

Set in 1850s Monterrey, California, author Jane Smiley has created a world of contrasts. Widowed Eliza Cargill begins a life as prostitute Eliza Ripple. Prospective clients are "checked out" for means and health and a kind of
"bodyguard" protects the working girls from physical harm. Against this backdrop are numerous scenes with forestry, horses and the sea as Eliza spends off-hours exploring the outdoors. She and newfound friend Jean will discover the body of another prostitute on one of these outdoor ventures. They will look for guidance to Edgar Allen Poe's Detective Dupin to visit murder scenes and put facts together to find a serial killer.

Eliza will eventually face the knowledge that the mistress of the bordello seeks "new blood" and the current working women must move on. Will Eliza find her place in a new kind of existence?

A young widow who has found a comfortable way of making a living in a well-run and not-too-demanding brothel in mid-19th century California, works with her friend to find out who has been killing women and getting away with murder because really, who cares? Inspired by Poe's Dupin, they rely on logic and observation to crack the case.

I have mixed feelings about this novel. There are some aspects of it as historical fiction that I enjoyed - the setting is quite interesting, and the protagonist is often interesting company in her observations. The pace, considering the subject matter, is leisurely and ... oh, look, a butterfly.

Sometimes crime fiction has serious literary chops, and sometimes a historical mystery pays more attention to history than mystery, and that can be fine. (Consider Naomi Hirohara's CLARK AND DIVISION, a decent mystery that gracefully took a backseat to the work of vividly recreating a time and place.) But somehow the parts of this novel didn't sit easily together for me, and the history itself seemed sometimes to be experienced by a twenty-first century time traveler. At any rate, I enjoyed it, somewhat, but felt overall dissatisfied, perhaps because I expected something more substantial from the author, even if it the mystery element were not front and center.

In Monterey, California, in the early 1850's, a young woman doesn't have many options for survival. So when Eliza Ripple's abusive husband is shot in a bar brawl only a few months after they arrive (and long before he can make a fortune in the gold rush as he'd planned), she turns to prostitution. The life she creates for herself is far more comfortable and lucrative than her former married life... until women start going missing, and bodies start turning up in the wilds surrounding the little city. Together with her friend and fellow working girl Jane, Eliza decides she must find out who's responsible for these deaths.

Full of evocative descriptions of Eliza's daily life in and out of the brothel, her long walks through the city with Jane, and their detective work inspired by a shared love of Edgar Allan Poe stories, this book was a pleasure to read. The resolution of the mystery and the subsequent end of the story both felt a little anticlimactic, but preferable to a more sensational (and perhaps gratuitously violent) end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Books for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

Jane Smiley's writing is so smooth, so flowing, her characters so real and intriguing and likeable, and the locations so evocative, that the book ends before one really is ready for it. This historical novel set in Monterey in the 185os, was the most unapologetic, fascinating and yes, even empowering immersion into the world of the working girl of those times, that 'dangerous business' of the title, that the murder mystery feels secondary. Which is fine. So many feminist issues explored skilfully and empathetically in this story set over 150 years ago: Eliza's choice, in capital letters, to work in a brothel, Jean's delightful preference for women (lesbianism not a word back then), the warmth and almost motherly care for the women working in her brothel that Mrs. Parks showed, and the power of friendship between women. There was even a nod to slavery and the Underground Railway. It was a refreshing change also, to see the men (and the boys brought along by their fathers) who frequented the brothel and who Eliza 'serviced' according to their sometimes strange wishes, ranged from delightful to creepy, but always with depth and needs that could often be empathized with, given those historic times and norms. This was not an anti-male story. The despicable males were those who abused their wives (a scenario Eliza had experienced for herself) and the authorities who dismissed the murders of 'whores' as not worth their time. (Enter Eliza and Jean!) This novel with so much explicit sex did not come across as explicit or at all steamy or erotic. This is very skilful writing because this is Eliza's story, and of course from her point of view the sex is a matter-of-fact tool of her business. For her, her job was to do her best to give her clients what they needed and had paid for, and when, occasionally she found her mind had wandered from its task, she even gave the client back his tip! Satisfyingly she did make a nice living from her business!

A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley
Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on December 6th, 2022.

Writing: 4/5 Characters: 4/5 Plot: 3.5/5

This was an odd book, though I did enjoy it. Monterey, CA in the 1850s. Eliza Ripple’s short and unhappy marriage is brought to an abrupt halt when her husband is shot in a bar brawl. Eliza takes up the oldest profession in the world, servicing 2-3 clients per evening at a nice brothel and finds her life more enjoyable than the one she had with in the marriage her parents had arranged for her. She makes an interesting friend — a woman in a similar profession but aimed at ladies (was this a thing back then or a figment of the author’s imagination? I have no idea!). When the bodies of women — mostly prostitutes like themselves — turn up, they find local law enforcement (such as it is) uninterested, so they feel compelled to figure it out themselves.

This is more of a novel than a mystery, though obviously there is a mystery to be solved and our heroines are trying to solve it, both as a means of self-preservation and out of a sense of justice! Smiley does an excellent job of having Eliza describe her own life and her own feelings as she discovers them. Eliza is an unsophisticated person, having experienced very little in her life. She learns about geography and other places and foods from sailor clients; she reads the very few books she has access to, and her model of the world expands to encompass what she reads; she becomes observant of people — men in particular — learning what makes them tick and how to take care with assumptions. It’s quite difficult to create a character that has so little education in the ways of the world — removing everything you know in your own brain is so much more difficult than learning something new — and Smiley pulled this off well.

I have no idea how realistic the portrayal of a small town brothel is, but I liked the straightforward and utterly non-judgmental depiction. I’ve never understood why prostitution — which services a basic biological need — is so vilified even today in our society. I think we would all be much happier if prostitution were both legal and free of stigma for both the providers and the clients!

A little slow paced and with more (albeit well done) descriptions (of nature, weather, the state of the streets, facial characteristics, clothing, etc.) for my taste, I nevertheless found myself continuing to think about the life that was presented — an effective vehicle for putting myself in another person’s very different shoes.

A Dangerous Business had a main character and a setting that was unique—Monterey, California in the 1850s; a character who takes up prostitution and creates a better life than what she had with her recently murdered husband.

Yet, the writing style made Eliza seem remote. At times the sparse prose seemed stilted and plodding. This stream of consciousness narrative just didn’t connect with me.
Also, the murder mystery needed more action and suspense for my taste.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There is so much in A Dangerous Business that has the potential to be wonderful yet it falls short of the finish line. Eliza Ripple is a young widow in 1850 Monterey California. Her husband takes her from her home in Michigan to strike it rich in the gold rush where he is killed in a bar fight. Eliza was trapped in a brutal, loveless marriage and has no money, family, friends, or marketable skills. She finds employment as a prostitute with Mrs. Parks who runs a clean and prosperous business catering to men who are courteous with the ladies.
Smiley's writing is lyrical with compassion for young women struggling to survive in a rugged environment with few laws and no protection outside of the homes of women like Mrs. Parks. Eliza and a friend discover a women's body on the banks of a river, and learn that other young prostitutes are missing but the law is doing little to discover the murderer. Eliza and her friend, influenced by the writing of Poe, embark upon the mission of finding the killer themselves. This is where the story goes off the rails.
If this were a novella or short story it would be fabulous, but I felt like this was a contractual obligation. There was little research into what 1850 Monterey was like so the descriptions never resonated. The characters do a lot of walking and riding without a clear destination except to maybe stumble over another body and/or the killer. The passages of life in the brothel are too sterile and polite to be believable. The climax reminds one of the old Peggy Lee song, "Is that all there is?"
Smiley is better than this. The best thing about the novel for me was how quickly it put me to sleep.