By Its Cover is a series of posts wherein I read a book based solely on my love of the cover. No reading the jacket, no checking reviews!
Based on the true story of Judge Joseph Crater, a New York Supreme Court judge who one summer night in 1930 gets into a cab and is never seen again. At the time his disappearance created a media firestorm and to this day, nobody knows what happened to him.
In Ariel Lawhon’s book Crater’s story belongs to his wife Stella, their maid Maria and Ritzi, Crater’s rumoured showgirl mistress, all of whom have their own stories to tell which run parallel but frequently bump into each other.
It’s a fun and fascinating time to set a whodunit. The New York of the thirties during Prohibition, rife with corruption, bootleggers, speakeasies and a never ending parade of people with questionable morals. At the centre of this story is Owney Madden, a real life gangster who owned the Cotton Club, but who here owns the fictional Club Abbey. He’s awfully fond of throwing his weight around, as gangsters are wont to do and ultimately affects the lives and stories of all three women. They in their turn, so different from one another, struggle to free themselves not only of the constraints of the time but the ramifications of the judge’s disappearance.
Stella struggles to maintain her reputation, not to mention her assets. Maria’s husband, Jude, is the lead detective on the case which causes all manner of complications and poor old Ritzi, probably the strongest personality of them all, is fresh out of the Judge’s bed and harbouring a secret.
Lawhon fashions a compelling story and satisfyingly creates the seedy glamour of the bootlegging thirties, layered with smoke and whisky. It’s a slow and quiet read despite its highly charged subject matter, written in a straightforward style but with everything carefully choreographed to come together in a delicate little twist of an ending.
