A review by ridgewaygirl
Queenpin by Megan Abbott

5.0

This is a true hard-boiled tale with a twist, the criminal kingpin (the Queenpin) of the title) is a woman, as is the nameless protagonist. She's a young woman going to business school, taking care of her widowed father and working part-time cooking the books for the owners of a two-bit nightclub, when the famous Gloria Denton plucks her out of the small time to become her protege. Everything's going well. She's not as smooth or as cold as her mentor, but she's learning. That's when a good looking gambler enters the scene, a charming scammer who can't leave the tables until his last dollar has been lost.

I couldn't put the book down. It has a traditional pulp novel cover, which kept me from bringing it along with me, but it's such a tight, fast-paced story that I had to keep turning the pages. If you like this sort of thing, I recommend it highly.