WESTSIDE

Akers’ debut novel is an addictively readable fusion of mystery,
dark fantasy, alternate history, and existential horror.

Gilda Carr is a 27-year-old private investigator living on the
Westside of a 1921 Manhattan that is divided by miles of barbed-wire fence
running down Broadway. The heavily guarded partition separates the Eastside
from its otherworldly neighbor to the west, where thousands of people have
inexplicably vanished over the years and strange occurrences—like disappearing
doorways in homes—have become commonplace. Carr specializes in solving “tiny mysteries,”
but when she agrees to find a woman’s lost leather glove she becomes entangled
in a much larger—and more dangerous—mystery, involving ruthless crime
lords, bootlegged moonshine, and a looming turf war that could kill hundreds.
Carr’s own missing father—a legendary brawler–turned–NYPD detective—is
strangely connected to many of the key players. As the fearless Carr uncovers
more secrets, she also begins to understand what happened to her presumably
dead father—and why. The seamless blending of genre elements creates a fresh
and unpredictable narrative, but the real power here comes from Akers’ focus on
description throughout. Masterful worldbuilding, character development, and
attention to dark atmospherics make for a fully immersive read in which even
secondary characters are memorable. An elevator operator, for example is
portrayed as having “skin the color of raw kielbasa,” and the elevator ride to
a hotel’s penthouse is powered by sublime imagery: “[Jazz] music echoed down
the elevator shaft like far-off guns—intoxicating, dangerous, and impossible to
resist.” The cast of deeply developed characters and the richly envisioned
setting are perfectly complemented by a breakneck-paced and action-packed
storyline. It’s like a literary shot of Prohibition-era rotgut
moonshine—bracing, quite possibly hallucination-inducing, and unlike anything
you’ve ever experienced before.

The illegitimate love child of Algernon Blackwood and Raymond
Chandler.