Queenpin (2007)

One of my rels is two years in to the most excellent taste in Christmas book gifts, even though I'm pretty sure he bought it for the cover, which he rightly surmised I would like on sight. I read this in one sitting on Boxing Day. It's about a lady gangster! And her protege! And a homme fatale, a gambler and wastrel. It is noir Bechdel-passing female leads and it is fully awesome. Short and punchy and uncompromisingly black. Do you like Chandler and Hammett and Leonard? You should give Abbott a go. ( )

I picked up this Edgar and Barry Award winner mostly for it’s irresistible cover a while back, fully expecting an homage to 50s and 60s pure pulp fiction and was not disappointed in that sense. Our narrator is a young woman who, putting herself through secretarial or accounting school, had taken a job at a small-time bar, juggling with the books for small-time pay. Things change drastically for our young heroine when Gloria Denton walks into the picture. She's a glamorous older dame with a figure to kill for, and a mean reputation as someone not to be messed with. Denton takes on our girl as her protégée and grooms her in her image to help her collect the earnings from various casinos, racing tracks and betting parlours. Gloria's only warning is not to fall for the wrong guy, which is of course what our heroine does promptly—falls in utter and complete lust for a complete loser: a gambling addict with major debt and the wrong sort of men breathing down his collar. Though she doesn't kiss and tell, we're given to understand that this guy has a complete hold on her budding sexuality. Of course things are bound to go very wrong with at least one person marked for a vicious murder. While this little novel delivered the goods and gave an unusual look at the underworld from a woman's perspective, I felt like I may as well have spent my time on one of the original masters of hardboiled crime, since I've yet to discover all the classics. For those who have, this is a good way to get a fix of noir. ( )

Raymond Chandler, move over. There's a new girl in town. Megan Abbott's Queenpin dives into that shadowy underbelly of society where the gamblers and thugs live to bring us the story of a young club-girl (unnamed) who finds herself being groomed for greatness by the Queenpin herself in a mafia riddled strip. Here, the women are the central focus, and the men more peripheral. But make no mistake, the novel is both gritty and sharp, with violence and sexual tension thrown in. And what happens when Goldilocks gets entangled with the big bad wolf? Watch out, because mama bear's claws are sharp.

I admit it. The cover was completely camp and the reason I picked up the book. ( )

Working the accounts part-time for a strip club while attending school, a young woman is picked out for a job offer by the local collector, the queenpin, a polished and dangerous older woman who's been working the racket a few decades and needs a protege. The younger woman is eager to learn how to be as clever, successful and wealthy as her mentor, even though she realizes that once in, there's little chance of getting out.

This isn't just a crime story with female characters substituting for the traditional males. The characters do everything in a feminine way, from leaning on casino owners to murder to sniping over a boyfriend. The writing can be a little rough here and there, but my only complaint is with the heavy reliance on slang, as there's hardly a sentence without it. Bit like actors chewing the scenery, but an enjoyable tale, especially for noir fans. I'll be picking up Abbott's others. ( )

What a great find, a modern author that writes like a classic noir author from the 1940’s. Queenpin is a stylish noir about a younger, unnamed woman being taken under the wing the older, established Gloria Denton and being taught the necessary mob survivor skills.
Written in the hard boiled prose that is expected of noir, we see the inevitable cycle of wanting a piece of the action so bad to the realization that once in, you can’t escape. Becoming the top lady mobster is a hard road to take, littered with cheap sex, booze, sleazy men, and ultimately blood, bones and bodies.
This is my first book by author Megan Abbott and, for me, it was a home run. I will definitely be on the lookout for more of these smart and very cool books. ( )