The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress
On a sultry summer night, as rumors circulated about the judge's involvement in wide-scale political corruption, Judge Crater stepped into a cab and vanished without a trace. Or did he?
As the novel unfolds and the women slyly break out of their prescribed roles, it becomes clear that each knows more than she initially lets on. With a layered intensity and tipsy spins through subterranean jazz clubs, The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress is a gripping tale that will transport readers to a bygone era. But beneath the Art Deco skyline and amid the intoxicating smell of smoke and whisky, the question of why Judge Crater vanished lingers seductively until the very last pages.
Review: I received a galley copy of this book as a giveaway on Goodreads.
This novel is based on the real life unsolved disappearance of of Justice Joseph Crater who disappeared in New York City in 1930. This story has all the hallmarks of the time period - gangsters, showgirls, speakeasies, political corruption. The story is told from three alternating perspectives - that of Joe's wife Stella, his mistress Ritzi, and his maid Maria.
I really enjoyed the revolving points of view in this novel. Having three perspectives with different insights allowed the reader to see the case from different angles, giving insight that pushed the plot forward. Additionally, I really loved that the three women interacted, giving the reader the opportunity to see each of them from another's perspective. For example, Stella seems very insecure of her looks, in particular, she constantly references how her breasts are too small. "There was no reason for Stella to feel ashamed of herself, and yet she could not stop the insecurity from smothering her right there" (55). Yet later, when Ritzi first sees Stella, her description is very different: "Ritzi stared. The woman was a stalk of grace. She carried herself with an assurance that was unnerving. Radiant in a knee-length navy dress with a scoop neck, her clavicles like the prow of a ship" (104). Through Ritizi's eyes, Stella appears as someone totally different than how she describes herself.
It was hard to feel sad that Joe disappears, especially since flashbacks reveal him as hateful and conniving with all three women. Although I assumed that the crux of this book would be the question of what happened to Joe, its clear from early on that he was killed by a gangster he was in leagues with. Thus the tension of the novel shifts to finding out what the three women knew about his disappearance. The only flaw with this approach is that since the reader sees Joe disappear and knows that none of the women killed him, finding out how they were involved is not overly compelling. They're all guilty of small dishonesties, but not of murder.
This dragged somewhat for me. Although I liked all three women and was reeled in by their stories, the progress on the story of Joe's disappearance is slow. The great reveal of the three women's involvement seemed implausible, namely since I find it highly unlikely that the three women would have spoken together as equals; they're from three very different social stations, they have reasons to dislike one another, and they're not privy to the world of men's closed room discussions. There were also holes in the plot with Stella's flee from the police, since she was easy to trace and was easily found by others, yet the police stay away.
Although all three women are guilty of a lot of morally gray behavior, I liked all three women in this novel and felt compassion for each of them in their own way, especially Ritzi with her troubled past and disillusioned dreams. I also liked how this novel depicted the underbelly of a seedy New York City. This reminded me a lot of Boardwalk Empire, which features a similar time period and similar political corruption.
Stars: 3.5
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