Blurb:
A modern-day noir featuring a twisty cat-and-mouse chase, this dark debut thriller tells the story of a a woman who makes a living taking down terrible men…then finds herself in over her head and with blood on her hands. The only way out? Pull off one final con.
Jo’s job is blackmailing the most lecherous men in Los Angeles–handsy Hollywood producers, adulterous actors, corrupt cops. Sure, she likes the money she’s making, which comes in handy for the debt she is paying off, but it’s also a chance to take back power for the women of the city. Eager to prove herself to her coworker Lou and their enigmatic boss, known only as the Lady Upstairs, Jo takes on bigger and riskier jobs.
When one of her targets is murdered, both the Lady Upstairs and the LAPD have Jo in their sights. Desperate to escape the consequences of her failed job, she decides to take on just one more sting–bringing down a rising political star. It’s her biggest con yet–and she will do it behind the Lady’s back, freeing both herself and Lou. But Jo soon learns that Lou and the Lady have secrets of their own, and that no woman is safe when there is a life-changing payout on the line.
My Thoughts:
In this book, we follow Jo, Jo is a blackmailer along with her colleagues Lou and Jackal they blackmail rich men, all for their boss The Lady Upstairs.
None of them knows who the lady is, or so Jo thinks.
When one of their marks ends up dead at one of their girl’s apartments things go downhill fast for Jo, and she has to do everything she can to keep The Lady from finding out what happened.
When I started this book I really wasn’t sure that I was going to enjoy it, but I really really did. I thought it was really clever and honestly didn’t figure out the twists until it was about to happen.
This book has a real femme fatale feel to it or a black and white PI movie, it was so well done. So much happens in such a short book and over such a short period of time. It is really fast-paced.
I enjoyed Jo as a character but some of her actions were really frustrating, I felt like she wasn’t really thinking her actions through at all which lead her to more dangerous situations. I liked her relationship with Jackal because it was really unattached until the end, and I liked their dismissal of each other to distance themselves.
What I found really annoying was Jo’s almost obsession with Lou, it felt so unhealthy and it felt like because of Jo’s feelings she couldn’t see anything other than Lou and there were so many times I wanted to jump into the book and just tell her to think clearly.
Overall, though I really enjoyed this book more than I thought I would.
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