The Wilde Women by Paula Wall

"After the debut success of The Rock Orchard, Wall has another winner. It's Christmas 1932, and smoldering Pearl Wilde returns to Five Points, TN, a town laid low by Prohibition, to open Five of Clubs, a swanky whorehouse. Added to the mix are the incendiary presences of Pearl's two-timing former fiancé, Bourne, and her beautiful, equally guilty sister, Kat. It's a wild romp as hopes and dreams are realized through a bawdy house, an illegal distillery, and a shirt factory. Wall must have been channeling Mae West when writing, for the novel is full of zingy one liners, e.g., "There wasn't enough starch left in the boys to hold up her stare." She takes what could have been stock characters and situations and gives them life and vigor through spicy narrative and snappy dialog."

~ Rebecca Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved