()
St. Louis, 1929. Marissa Erinson comes to the city chasing purpose, eager to prove herself as more than a sheltered girl from South Carolina. But when her well-intentioned newspaper articles stir up dangerous truths about crime and corruption, she finds herself in the crosshairs of bootleggers, politicians, and powerbrokers who prefer silence to scandal. As threats close in, Marissa must navigate fragile alliances—between idealistic students, hardened gangsters, and a fiercely determined political candidate. Drawn into the city’s jazz clubs and back alleys, she discovers that friendship can turn into betrayal as quickly as laughter fades into gunfire. Comparable works include Out of the Easy; The Four Winds; Rules of Civility