Set in 1932, One Night, New York by Lara Thompson is the story of farm girl Frances, who escapes the Kansas dustbowl in order to join brother Stanley in the big city. The novel begins on 21 December, with Frances and her lover Agnes at the top of the newly erected Empire State Building, preparing a terrible revenge on a man who has wronged them both...
From the destitute war veterans who inhabit the shanty towns to the ritzy nightclubs selling illegal booze, this is an atmospheric portrait of a city in the grip of the Great Depression as well as a compelling crime story.
Frances’s story is told in flashbacks from that cold rooftop. A few months earlier she ran away from an intolerable life in rural, Depression-struck Kansas to join her brother Stan in New York City. On the train she meets Jacks and Dicky, a glamorous journalist and a photographer. They want to make-over the gawky young farm girl and chronicle her emergence into New York butterfly...
Lara Thompson’s portrayal of stubborn, brave Frances is enthralling; this page-turning thriller marks her as a writer to watch.
