Evie O'Neill is a thoroughly modern girl - bobbed hair, flapper style, and a desire to have nothing but fun. When her ability to hold objects and divine the owner's secrets from them gets her in trouble in her hometown of Zenith, Ohio, her parents send her to stay in New York with her uncle until things quiet down. But trading in the Midwest for the skyscrapers of fabulous, fashionable New York is hardly a punishment for Evie, even if she is stuck working with her uncle Will and his staid assistant Jericho in the Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult. Soon she's zipping around town, hanging out with Ziegfeld dancer Theta and her best pal Henry, figuring out how to get her friend Mabel into Jericho's arms, and avoiding that wretched sneak thief Sam Lloyd at all costs. Meanwhile, Memphis Campbell, a Harlem numbers runner with aspirations of being a poet, keeps dreaming about a tall figure standing at a crossroads and an eye with a lightning bolt under it, which is thoroughly disconcerting. And a killer with a penchant for the occult is stalking the streets of New York, making Evie, Jericho, Will, and Sam race against time to stop him.
This was a re-read for me in preparation for the sequel, but I still enjoyed it. Bray is building a very lush world that is grounded in the history of the 20s but with the added element of the supernatural, and it's a great melding. One thing I appreciate more and more each time I've read this book is that the killer gets creepier and creepier, and the overarching mystery put into motion gets more and more intriguing. Libba Bray is one of my favorite authors, and while I've only just started on Lair of Dreams, I'm looking forward to what she comes up with next.
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