The Ace of Spades

Summary

When a celebrity bad boy is murdered in Jazz Age New York, a reporter, a detective, and a wife must navigate the dangerous gap between truth and power. Based on a real-life crime, The Ace of Spades is a gripping tale of genius, ambition, and deception.

New York City, 1920. On a bright June morning, Joseph Bowne Elwell—notorious celebrity of the Jazz Age, bestselling author, high roller at race tracks and card tables, and the world’s most famous expert on the game of bridge—is found shot in his townhouse. A murder in the glamorous world of Manhattan privilege immediately becomes front-page news across the nation.

Every lead in the case exposes new layers of deception among the city’s wealthy and well-connected, where influence can silence witnesses and conceal the truth. The police can’t solve it. The newspapers can’t let it go. The public can’t get enough. And the fifty-three women in his little black book—at least those the police can track down—know more than they’re saying.

As the investigation winds through drawing rooms, private clubs, and the highest reaches of society, three lives become intertwined with the captivating crime: a pioneering female reporter determined to find the truth, a homicide captain racing to solve the city’s most notorious murder, and the victim’s estranged wife, whose own ambitions have long been overshadowed by the man now lying dead.

Some murders make headlines. Some become history. A rare few become legends.