Queenpin by Megan Abbott. Simon & Schuster, 2007. 9781416534280. 180pp.
I was in the Pike Place Market’s BLMF books looking at the stacks of noir on the front counter when I asked the owner who Megan Abbott was. He was surprised I didn’t know, and he recommended this one.
It’s a near-perfect crime novella. The protagonist is an unnamed young woman taken under the wing of the hard-as-nails Gloria, an aging beauty who rescues her from her idiotic bosses, the consequences of the slightly crooked bit of bookkeeping she does for them, and the ordinary life she’ll have after she finishes school. Gloria gives her an apartment, nice clothes, and a place in the underworld where, for a while, she does as she’s told. She starts by making deliveries and not asking questions before moving up to collecting debts and helping to wash money. But then she falls for the wrong guy, a gambler who can never walk away from a table while he’s winning.
It’s soon clear she’s going to have to cross Gloria and Gloria’s bosses to save this dude from the consequences of his debts. But it’s hard to pull anything over on Gloria because she sees everything.