Spirits and Smoke

Starred review from November 22, 2021
Set in Prohibition-era Chicago, Miley’s vibrant sequel to 2021’s The Mystic’s Accomplice finds young widow and mother Maddie Pastore working as a shill and researcher for spiritualist Madame Carlotta Romany when a thuggish man crashes a séance and demands Carlotta contact his brother, bank teller Herman Quillen, who died after ingesting a poisonous “smoke cocktail.” But when Maddie digs into Quillen’s background, she discovers he had no brother. In fact, Quillen’s sister is convinced her brother was murdered. Who could have wanted the inoffensive and colorless Quillen dead, and who was the mysterious “brother” trying to find out at the séance? Could it have something to do with $100,000 missing out of a huge deposit by the mob at Quillen’s bank? The bagman who’s on the hook for the missing money believes Maddie knows where the money is, and he’s determined to get it from her any way he can. Miley’s storytelling skills do justice to her clever, gutsy, and endearing protagonist. This is a real treat for readers who love stories set in the Roaring ’20s.

Starred review from January 1, 2022

Miley's sequel to The Mystic's Accomplice is rich in historical details of gangs and Prohibition in 1924 Chicago. Maddie Pastore, a widow, has moved into Madame Carlotta Romany's Chicago house, where she assists the medium by acting as her investigator. When a new client requests an appointment, Maddie checks out wills and obituaries. Herman Quillen's brother, Samuel, wants to talk with the deceased man, but Maddie's search reveals that Quillen only had two sisters. After Carlotta accuses the man of lying, Maddie learns he's really Louis Roth, part of Chicago's North Side Gang. Why would a gangster want to talk to a dead bank teller? Quillen was murdered, and Roth believes he stole cash that belonged to the gang. Roth wants it back, and he suspects Maddie knows where the money is. He threatens Maddie and her baby and gives her a deadline to return the cash. Shrewd, street-smart Maddie will use all her wits and assistance from Officer Kevin O'Rourke and a new reporter friend to uncover the truth behind Quillen's life and death, while protecting those she loves. VERDICT Fans of fast-paced historical mysteries will appreciate Miley's latest.--Lesa Holstine

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2021
Miley's follow-up to her exciting series debut, The Mystic's Accomplice(2021), plunges her intrepid heroine into even greater danger in 1924 Chicago. Maddie Pastore has been doing everything she can to support her baby ever since her mobbed-up late husband Tommaso's first--and apparently still legal--wife reappeared after his murder, claiming Maddie's house and all her savings. She works for a woman calling herself Madame Carlotta Romany, the mother of a childhood friend who has established herself as a medium, doing the research that enables Carlotta to convince her clients she's the real thing. A new name to investigate is that of the late Herman C. Quillen, a victim of alcohol poisoning whose brother has made an appointment for a seance. Checking Quillen's will, Maddie discovers that he was a bank cashier whose only siblings were two sisters. When the phony brother is thrown out of the seance, trouble follows with the news that he's a mobster looking for stolen money. At first the police are uninterested, but Maddie wants to help one of Quillen's sisters, who's in dire straits, and teams up with Lloyd Prescott, a reporter with connections and moxie. They sense that there's something wrong at the bank where Quillen worked--after all, that's where the money is, or was. Finding the missing cash involves Maddie with the mob her husband worked for and raises the novel question of how to turn Al Capone down when he wants to be godfather to your baby. Maddie will have to outsmart the mob and a clever thief to survive. All the colorful characters and historic details from the heroine's debut, fortified by a stronger mystery.

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