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THE LADY UPSTAIRS

Halley Sutton

A deliciously dark thriller crackling with wit and a feminist voice, this is the timely story of a woman who builds a career taking down terrible men - and ultimately finds herself drawn into a dark criminal underworld that she can only escape by performing one final con.
Unlike most of the population of Los Angeles, Jo can truly say that she's made it in the city of broken dreams. She earns a living by blackmailing the city's most lecherous men: the handsy Hollywood producers, adulterous actors, and corrupt cops. She's motivated as much by the money she's earning - and the debt she's paying off - as by the good she tells herself she's doing for the women of L.A.

Eager to prove herself to her coworker Lou and their enigmatic boss, known only as the Lady Upstairs, Jo starts to take on bigger and riskier jobs. But when one of the men she's targeting turns up dead, both the Lady Upstairs and the LAPD have Jo in their sights. Desperate to escape the deadly consequences of her failed job, Jo decides to take on one last sting, bringing down a rising political star. It's her biggest con yet, and she'll do it behind the Lady's back. But Jo soon learns that Lou and the Lady have secrets of their own, and that no one is safe when there's a life-changing payout on the line.

Halley Sutton is an editor for Make Change Magazine, a fiction editor for Monday Night Lit literary magazine, and a 2018 Pitch Wars mentee. She holds a bachelor's degree in creative writing from University of California, Santa Cruz, and a master's in writing from Otis College of Art and Design. Her work has appeared in academic journals, CrimeReads, Rose Red Review, and others.
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Published 2020-07-14 by Putnam

Comments

Masterful. Sutton's biting language has its own grim, hard rhythm.

...strong female characters will delight fans of American noir.

Halley Sutton's propulsive, delectable noir is one of the most thrilling debuts I can remember. With a pair of utterly captivating femmes fatales at its dark and twisty heart, The Lady Upstairs is sharp, sly, and crackling with erotic tension. I didn't just read this one - I devoured it.

Sharp as a stiletto and twice as sexy, The Lady Upstairs is the smart, sultry noir we need right now. Sutton's feminist femme fatale heroine will seduce and intoxicate you, and you'll love every second of it.

Readers who savor crime stories featuring complex, unapologetic women will be hooked.

If either Thelma or Louise opted not to drive off that cliff, and instead took up residence in LA and began systematically righting some big wrongs, you'd have Halley Sutton's con-woman Jo: the ass-kicking anti-hero our world desperately needs. The Lady Upstairs is a stunning debut, noir as hell, filled with complex and daunting characters, and just a real good time.

This diamond-blade feminist noir is near impossible to put down. Jo, the new queen of unlikeable female protagonists, exploits the wrongdoings of Los Angeles' sleaziest men in power while frantic to get out from underneath a mountain of debt to a woman--the Lady Upstairs--who threatens to crush her. A stunning new voice in LA Noir, Halley Sutton has set the bar high. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

Savvy, seductive, twisted - noir at its best. Shrewd women enact vengeance to fill their empty pocketbooks and hollow souls. Sutton's timely plot will chill and resonate beyond the page.

Feminist noir that should scare a few awful men into better behavior. Loved it.

I couldn't put The Lady Upstairs down. Halley Sutton's debut crackles with the unmistakable voice of its heroine, a cynical, wisecracking femme fatale straight out of a Raymond Chandler novel, who becomes enmeshed in a twisty tale of greed, betrayal, and vengeance. As dark as Megan Abbott and as voice-y as Lisa Lutz, this astoundingly self-assured debut ranks its author alongside the best in her genre. The Lady Upstairs is L.A. noir at its finest.

An astonishing and brilliant debut. A twisty, perfectly plotted, feminist crime noir that juxtaposes the glittering LA social scene with its gritty underbelly, this thriller sizzles with tension. Sutton is a sensational writer, with one of the most intriguing protagonists I've ever come across. She is an author everyone will be talking about.

Sultry, captivating, and electric with tension, The Lady Upstairs delivers a plot that must be devoured, in language that must be savored. With sharp, magnetic prose, Halley Sutton dives into the darkness of women's lives, illuminating how venom and vulnerability are often two sides of the same coin. Empowering and terrifying, this timely noir will keep you in its grip from its arresting first lines to its exquisite final chapter.