Sugarland

Sugarland was a fun, fast read. I loved learning about the developing jazz movement and the black and tan clubs in Prohibition-era Chicago. The author clearly did a ton of research, and I was constantly looking up various musicians and clubs from that era to see what it all looked like in real life. It was a very entertaining, authentic novel.

Conway focuses on a female African-American musician named Eve Riser. The story follows her as she comes to Chicago and ends up witnessing a murder. Eve decides to investigate the murder with the help of her half-sister and the sister of the victim, Lena. Lena Hardy is white, and Conway uses that relationship to explore the racial tensions and prejudice that existed at that time. Lena and Eve couldn’t sit on the bus together, couldn’t eat most places together, and the relationship was frowned upon by almost everyone they encountered, regardless of race.

Another entertaining part of the story that I really enjoyed were the references to the up and coming Al Capone. The Irish were still running the gangs at this point, but the Italians were just beginning to change that. A number of historical events were all happening in Chicago at that time period, and it was fascinating to see them overlap some.

I really enjoyed this novel. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book has all the elements I love. Incredible writing, lovable characters, and music. Throw in a great mystery and I am hooked. Eve and Chickie were two strong sisters and faced quite a bit in the 1920s. The author did a wonderful job with planting the reader smack dab in the middle of Chicago and I could hear all the smooth jazz sounds surrounding me. The story flowed very well and ending didn't disappoint.

The start of this book had my heart beating 100 times a minute. I felt every bit of Eve’s fear. And from there on, the author grabs you and you are there. In the club, hearing the music, on the street with shots being fired or composing music. Her writing is so vibrant this book plays like a movie in your head.

Conway totally manages to convey the undercurrent of fear in a “colored” woman’s life in Prohibition era America. “Eve heard herself say thank you sir in her best white voice and closed the door carefully behind her even though she wanted to slam it on his big fat self. Everywhere she went it was just the same thing. A white man running things and her saying yes sir.” I was actually surprised to find the author was white. Her writing reminded me of Toni Morrison.

The characters are colorful, fully fleshed out. Not just Eva, but also Lena, a white nurse who befriends Eva over a shared love of jazz.

How did I miss this author before? Her prior book won the North American award for Historical Fiction. And after reading this, I can see why.

Thanks to netgalley for providing me with an advance copy of this book.

Eve Riser is a pianist on the jazz circuit in prohibition-era Illinois. She is caught up in a violent crime while on the circuit. Fearing that she would be connected to the crime, Eva is sent to Chicago to work and stay with her step-sister, Chickie. When she arrives Eva quickly finds herself in the middle of a drive by shooting of a bootlegger in which she is also shot. Lena, the deceased bootlegger’s sister helps Eva recovery. However, while she is recovering Chickie disappears and Eva discovers that the money she has been sent to Chicago with is missing. Lena and Eva go on a hunt of Chicago’s jazz clubs and speakeasies to try and find answers behind Lena’s brother’s death and try and find Chickie.
This is a historical mystery that throws you right into the action. Within the first few pages a man is dead and Eva is sent on the run. The danger quickly escalates as Eva, an African-American woman, navigates Chicago with a large amount of money. Since there is so much action in the beginning, I didn’t really get to know Eva’s character all that well other than that she is a brilliant musician and pianist who cares deeply for he sister. What I did get a wonderful sense of was the time period and music scene. The rise of jazz, the overall feeling that the music gives you, the story it tells and the way it brings people together was really the forefront of the novel for me. I loved the scenes in the jazz clubs where Eva or Lena was describing the music and the process of playing and writing. I did feel like I could hear some of the songs myself. Another aspect that was done well was the different racial relations of 1920’s Chicago. Many of the jazz musicians are African American and rule the jazz club scene, but segregation is still very much a part of their world. The friendship between Eva and Lena, a white nurse grows throughout the story as they navigate treacherous territory within the bootlegging world. However, Eva’s race sometimes hinders their mission. The mystery part of the novel, took a bit of a back seat for me, I did want to know why Lena’s brother was shot and how it connected to the death in the very beginning, but the setting and music stole the scene for me.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

The writing style is well set for the period and setting; 1920s prohibition Chicago. Eve is a jazz pianist and singer in the speak easys of the Windy City. As a black woman in a time of segregation, she deals with a good amount of foul treatment for being around the few white people she knows. What may seem out of place is how many people she sees killed for someone who is just trying to make her way in music.

There is a good balance of murder mystery and music knowledge here. While I'm used to reading more of the current events type thriller, this gives a good feeling of the old time drama. Instead of your typical, run of the mill audio book, this would actually be a great radio drama.

Certainly worth the read if you're a fan of the era.

A riveting mystery set in Chicago in the Roaring 20's. The action starts off literally with a bang which sets Eve Riser on her journey to Chicago. There she hopes to connect with her sister, nightclub singer, Chickie (who has secrets of her own). Eve is a musician and familiar with music clubs and the dubious characters who frequent them. Unfortunately, Eve's troubles are just beginning when she's caught in the crossfire of a very public shooting. Luckily Eve finds an ally (and a nurse) in Lena. And as it turns out, it was Lena's brother who was killed. This sets up a story that twists and turns its way between Prohibition-era underworld figures and the lives of average people just trying to get by. Eve and Lena investigate the reason for the killing while they navigate a racially segregated society. Their unlikely partnership is the foundation of the story. Two strong, independent women who are at times world weary, yet never resigned to accept the roles society has placed them in. The author has woven in countless references of the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of the era. It's not like taking modern characters and dropping them into a time period with no real markers to define it. She's done her research and it shows. Eve and Lena are fully drawn characters and I was rooting for them to win out over the forces aligned against them. But, when they solve the mystery they must also face betrayal and heartbreak when the truth is revealed. A well-paced and suspenseful mystery set in a world where love and loss are always closely connected.

"She knew what it would be like out on the circuit: some places they love the music and some places they don't. You get into a groove, then a waiter drops a tray and you lose it. Can't get your dresses cleaned properly, the man stiffs you on your pay, you take a break to eat lunch and can't find a resturant that will serve you. She knew what the life was like, but she was going to do it anyway. She had to, and she wanted to."

Eve riser is a young piano player that goes on a circuit across the country with other musicians playing Jazz. One night when out with a guy she witnesses something awful and because of that he sends her back to Chicago with something to give to a man named Rudy.
Once she is back in Chicago and meets up with her sister Chickie who has her own problems that play a pretty big part in the second half of the story. But once these two sisters start working together and becoming a team again everything seems like it will look up. That is until Rudy and his sister Lena get added into the picture and more tragedy happens.

"She thought wearing men's clothes would make her feel free, but instead she was just wondering at every turn what she should do with her hands, her feet."

Lena is a young woman who has lost everyone close to her in her family, and because of this she is willing to do what it takes to try and find out what exactly happened, why it happened, and who did it. She gets help from Eve and a cast of other characters that help her in a bunch of different ways.

Overall I really liked this story. I found it to be a really quick read and I loved the friendship that happened between Eve and Lena despite the racial differences. This story is told in perspective of both Eve and Lena (Chickie had a small part to) so we got to see how things were different for both of them, and how they both felt towards each other and how/why they wanted to help each other figure out what was going on. I also really enjoyed the musical parts and how they were explained in a simple way that still made sense (I took piano classes for 3 years, but sadly wasn’t ever really good at it) and helped the story go along. I did occasionally get a few of the male characters confused because they had similar names, but I think that was just me not paying close enough attention at times.
If you want a quick, 1920’s story that involves music and friendship then please read this book.

"This was all she wanted sometimes. To play her music and forget about everything else."

When jazz pianist Eve Riser witnesses the accidental murder of a bootlegger, she heads to Chicago to find a man named Rudy Hardy and help cover up the crime.
But when Rudy is killed in front of her in a drive-by shooting, Eve is plunged even deeper in the murky world of the bootleggers and smugglers that are well on their way to making Chicago their city.

With a cast of fascinating characters, and an impressive amount of research to support her, Conway has created an exciting and immersive mystery – a real page turner!

For me, the strongest part was the characterisation – every single person in the novel was easily visualised, and completely unique. Everyone had their little quirks and their interesting back stories, and all that went a long way to creating tension and moving the plot along. It was almost as exciting to see who we were going to meet next, as it was to see what happened next.

Conway has also clearly done her research, not just into the historical era (and, in particular, the racial divides present at the time), but into the genre of jazz music. Name dropping important musicians, using the correct terminology, paragraphs describing how the music makes Eve feel… the book is as much a love letter to the formative years of an incredible musical genre as it is an engrossing mystery.

If there was one disappointing aspect for me, it was the way the relationship between Eve and Lena, Rudy’s sister, ended. At the risk of dropping a few spoiler bombs, I’m not expecting Sugarland to turn into a series – though a run of books about a black, female jazz pianist and a cross dressing half German woman solving crimes in Prohibition era Chicago does sound pretty amazing – but there was a lot of potential there that remained unexplored when the book finished. I definitely get the sense Lena was attracted to Eve, or at the very least that being around someone from such a different world was encouraging Lena to explore her own sense of self and figure out who she was. Instead, she ends up consumed by revenge for her brother’s murder, and it proves to be her undoing – a slightly cliché way to finish off a character that could have been one half of an amazing crime fighting duo… sorry… I just think that sounds like a really good series idea.

There may be a slightly problematic element at play here, with Conway, as a white woman, writing with a black lead, particularly with how much attention she pays to the racism of the era, but I’m hoping someone with more understanding of what it means to be a person of colour will read the book and explore that further – as a white person myself, I’m not going to be able to properly discern if Conway nails it or not!

All in all, however, I was impressed. I’d definitely like to read more involving these characters, and Conway’s carefully researched world, though the book did end so definitively that I’m not sure it will happen. I guess it’s a sign of a good book that I consider that a real shame.