A wonderful portrait of a self-destructive woman at odds with the world and herself. Set in Houston, Texas, the tale of Charlotte Ford whose life has proven a great disappointment and is now scraping the edges to make ends meet when, out of the blue, she briefly reconnects with Danielle, an old accomplice in minor crimes and life's vagaries. However, Danielle is soon found dead and the police unable to solve the case. In search of moral redemption, Charlotte sets off on her own, improvised investigation, running down the insalubrious environment of stripping and drugs taking Danielle was involved in, her wealthy but cold-hearted mother and some of the men in the dead friend's life. But the quest is also one for her own soul. Down and dirty and bleak, but a finely-etched evocation of personal despair and the low life, a book that speaks to the heart.
Longlisted for The John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger 2017Twenty-two-year-old Charlotte Ford reconnects with Danielle, her best friend from high school, a few days before Danielle is found bludgeoned to death in a motel room. In the wake of the murder, Charlotte's life unravels and she descends into the city's underbelly, where she meets the strippers, pornographers and drug dealers who surrounded Danielle in the years they were estranged.Ginsburg's Houston is part of a lesser known south, where the urban and rural collide gracelessly. In this shadowy world, culpability and sympathy blur in a debut novel which thrillingly brings its three female protagonists to the fore. Scary, funny and almost unbearably sad, Sunset City is written with rare grace and empathy holding you transfixed, praying for some kind of escape for Charlotte.
