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    Queenpin: A classic story of underworld greed and betrayal, introducing a mesmerising and compelling unreliable narrator ...
    Unavailable
    Queenpin: A classic story of underworld greed and betrayal, introducing a mesmerising and compelling unreliable narrator ...
    Unavailable
    Queenpin: A classic story of underworld greed and betrayal, introducing a mesmerising and compelling unreliable narrator ...
    Ebook178 pages3 hours

    Queenpin: A classic story of underworld greed and betrayal, introducing a mesmerising and compelling unreliable narrator ...

    By Megan Abbott

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    'If Abbott writes half a dozen more books as good as her first three ... she will claim the throne as the finest prose stylist in crime fiction since Raymond Chandler' San Francisco Chronicle

    A young woman hired to keep the books at a down-at-heel nightclub is taken under the wing of the infamous Gloria Denton, a mob luminary who reigned during the Golden Era of Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano. The moll to end all molls, Gloria is notoriously cunning and ruthless. She shows her eager young protégéethe ropes, ushering her into a glittering whirl of late-night casinos, racetracks, betting parlours, inside heists and big, big money. Suddenly, the world is at her feet -- as long as she doesn't take any chances, like falling for the wrong guy.

    It all falls to pieces with a few turns of the roulette wheel, as both mentor and protégée scramble to stay one step ahead of their bosses and each other ...
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster UK
    Release dateDec 6, 2010
    ISBN9781849834445
    Unavailable
    Queenpin: A classic story of underworld greed and betrayal, introducing a mesmerising and compelling unreliable narrator ...
    Author

    Megan Abbott

    Megan Abbott is an award-winning author of noir fiction including Queenpin and Bury Me Deep (nominated for the Edgar Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize). Her novel The End of Everything was a Richard and Judy selection and Dare Me was shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger. She is also the author of the gripping psychological thrillers, The Fever and You Will Know Me. She is co-writer of the smash-hit Sky Atlantic drama, The Deuce. Born in the Detroit area, she now lives in Queens, New York City.

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    Reviews for Queenpin

    4/5

    141 ratings20 reviews

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    • 4/5
      utterly delicious
    • 4/5
      Guess I was a sexist and didn't even know it....LOL. My wife knew I liked hard-boiled stories and when she found this book at the library, she asked me if I would be interested in reading it. I saw it was written by a woman and had my doubts....OH, was I ever wrong. Megan Abbott's book was hard boiled from start to finish and if I didn't know it was from 2007, I would think it was a lost classic!
    • 3/5
      I feel like this was a very very good noir/crime/thriller novel, but totally underscored that that's not my bag. I can imagine recommending it to a lot of people
    • 4/5
      It take a little while to find its voice and never feels exactly comfortable with it. Not Megan Abbott's best work but it moves at a fast enough clip that it can gloss over a lot. While the fast pace of the novel stops it being boring it would have been nice it had stopped once in a while to flesh out the characters a bit more. Even if it was going for a noir feel story telling has moved on in the last 50 years.
    • 4/5
      Written in the vein of 1950s pulp noir, this is the story of a woman gangster, Gloria, who takes the young unnamed narrator under her wing and teaches her the job--mainly how to never show what she's feeling. Too bad, the girl falls in love (or just extreme lust) and betrays her mentor. There is one point about midway through, after a particularly gruesome scene, when Gloria says to her protege (and I have to use the spoiler tag because there is a dirty word and also it's a bit spoilery): "Don't worry. We'll find someone else for you to fuck." This line literally made me gasp out loud, not only because, coming when it did, it was so perfectly bad-ass, but because it crystallized the whole story in one instant. We knew then that Gloria was turning the narrator into herself, and that would eventually lead to the downfall of one of them. It's a tightly plotted novel with a great sense of style, and it makes for a fast, entertaining read. I only wish the other characters, particularly the boyfriend, had been as well-drawn and interesting as Gloria was.
    • 3/5
      Very entertaining.
    • 2/5
      I will read another by Megan Abbott. Lately, her name has been frequently dropped for Dare Me and The Fever -- which are a change of genre from this title. It is hard to believe that this is an Edgar winner. Quuenpin apes the speak of 40-50s pulp fiction, but the language has the flow of a vocabulary exercise. There are lapses in continuity that are distracting. I enjoyed the device of the Queenpin as the underground heavy, but all the details are window-dressing. The story has a puddle's depth next to the character development of the pulp-noir masters. The unnamed lead tells that she falls hard for the degenerate gambler, but never shows us the why. Likewise, there is little meaningful interaction between the Queenpin, Gloria Denton, and the lead. We are supposed to accept that the Queenpin's cynical affinity for the impressionable lead is because of the gift of a high-end letter opener -- because no one had ever given her anything? Abbott got a few of the details right, occasionally the language landed square, and there were a few but not over the top turns. It is not enough to recommend reading this one, but enough to recommend trying another.
    • 4/5
      How refreshing to read a hardboiled novel that tells a story from the female perspective. This book was almost impossible for me to put down. It's jam packed with deception, a dead body here and there, and enough snappy dialogue to rival a Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe tale any day.Our nameless protagonist is going to school, looking after her widowed father and working part time as a bookkeeper "cooking the books". One day she meets the infamous Gloria Denton (the Queenpin) and her life is changed forever. All goes well until she meets Mr. Wrong, and crosses Gloria in the process of trying to save him. Gloria doesn't like her people "going against the family".It was such a great read, filled with action packed as the various characters try to outsmart each other and wonder who knows what and how long they can stay safe. I will definitely read more of this author's books.
    • 4/5
      Modern, gripping pulp “Because she was solid gold, fourteen-carat, barely burnished despite twenty years of hard molling. But beneath it, I knew, beneath that gold and stardust, she was all grit and sharp teeth gnashing, head twisting, talons out, tearing flesh. She was all open mouth, tunneling into an awful nothing.” In the golden era of mobsters a young secretary escapes her stultifying existence when infamous Gloria Denton offers her a job. A world of big money rackets, freedom and excitement and lust among the casinos and racetracks. A violent, addictive world where there is no one you can trust. The language is delicious full-on gangster, but full of passion; the greed and ambition, the desire, the twisting paranoia of the criminal act. There is love here but it’s not healthy, it’s a power play of teacher and protege. Whilst you don't exactly root for either, our young narrator draws you in and you don't want to let go. It is a modern nod to pulps and refreshingly a Noir that does not revolve wholly around men, although sadly (and rather boringly) the pivotal drama does. Reversing the femme fatale back fires into a yet more tired trope (the bad boyfriend) and makes the book lag badly in the middle. Still I adored the rest. Recommended
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      The most perfect, stark prose I've encountered in ages. Able to set the 50's noir atmosphere of an anonymous gambling town, to capture the flawed characters of two striking, strong women -- perfect to the last word. One of the best books I've read.
    • 5/5
      Gloria Denton is the local gangster's moll and the Queenpin of the title, one day she takes a protege under her wing - our nameless protagonist. For a while all goes well as Gloria instructs our girl in the ways of her world, but then it all goes wrong when our girl falls in 'want' with Vic, a small-time loser and in the process crosses Gloria - and you never cross Gloria. This is a fast, furious and refreshing read written in a Chanderesque style which doesn't fail to entertain.
    • 4/5
      How refreshing to read a hardboiled novel that tells a story from the female perspective. This book was almost impossible for me to put down. It's jam packed with deception, a dead body here and there, and enough snappy dialogue to rival a Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe tale any day.Our nameless protagonist is going to school, looking after her widowed father and working part time as a bookkeeper "cooking the books". One day she meets the infamous Gloria Denton (the Queenpin) and her life is changed forever. All goes well until she meets Mr. Wrong, and crosses Gloria in the process of trying to save him. Gloria doesn't like her people "going against the family".It was such a great read, filled with action packed as the various characters try to outsmart each other and wonder who knows what and how long they can stay safe. I will definitely read more of this author's books.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      I've been praising this book everywhere I can for the past year. One of the best things I have read in a very, very long time. Excellent beyond words. She has the perfect voice, the perfect pitch, the perfect delivery. For an old Pulp Era hound like myself, this is beautiiful music from a new master. Abbott is my new fave to rave.
    • 5/5
      Wow. This book has the emotional impact of a much weightier work, in the sense that its themes are timeless and the prose impact is at an incredibly high per-word ratio. Beat that, Updike, or as every review probably suggests, Chandler or Carver. But this amazing coup is hung on a classic noir frame: mentor/neophyte, clean-up killing, payment in full and then redemption.I had no idea I'd enjoy noir so much, but I think it's the moral ambiguity that appeals most to me. Turning the whole thing on its head by telling it through women makes it possible, it seems to me, to go even deeper into the dark heart of things. When Gloria's mask is lifted, what's inside is more complex, and burns hotter, than I think it would in a man. And the dance between the women is more treacherous because it means more to a woman to betray, or to kill, or to lose. At least, MA can make it seem so.Speaking of what's between the women: there is a raw sexual tension there that is every bit as dramatic as the narrator's longing for Vic. Occasionally there's a mother-daughter vibe; certainly there's lots of mentor stuff, but the women are entwined in a dance whose pulse, to me, seemed unmistakeably sexual. Consider these lines:"She turned me out and you never forget the one who turns you out.""I knew it had all been headed toward this from the minute she set her hooks in me."Well, it certainly makes for a barn-burner; couldn't stop reading the thing.But the relationship with Vic was plenty hot too. MA may have pulled off the best description of want that I have ever read. Again with the lines (and they are *all* that good):"His hands tore me to ribbons and left me that way...let's face it, he broke me because I was begging to be broke"[after he betrays her:] "I want to say I regret it but I don't, not even now. Not one dirty thing. I loved them all."Period detail isn't my forte but it seemed to all be there, and I appreciated that through context I actually understood how all the rackets were played. Vivid (but terse - MA's genius is creating entire pictures from just a few words) descriptions of the casinos, clubs, alleys etc. that make up that world. My one quibble is that, less than half way through the book, I couldn't understand what bound her to Vic. Vic was so odious but more importantly he was WEAK and it is unimagineable that she would stay with him. I tried hard to understand how her character would be drawn to his hellbent loserism, that it might translate to some sort of idealism or even, if you stretch it, innocence...but it just didn't work for me. There needed to be some way to paint her longing so that the reader saw what she saw and said "ah, I get it."Looking forward to reading MA's other 2 books.