Katharine Schellman – författare

The Last Note of Warning is the third in the luscious, mysterious, and queer Nightingale mystery series by Katharine Schellman, set in 1920s New York.Prohibition is a dangerous time to be a working-class woman in New York City, but Vivian Kelly has finally found some measure of stability and freedom. By day, she’s a respectable shop assistant, delivering luxurious dresses to the city’s wealthy and elite. At night, she joins the madcap revelry of New York’s underworld, serving illegal drinks and dancing into the morning at a secretive, back-alley speakeasy known as the Nightingale. She''s found, if not love, then something like it with her bootlegger sweetheart, Leo, even if she can''t quite forget the allure of the Nightingale''s sultry owner, Honor Huxley.Then the husband of a wealthy client is discovered dead in his study, and Vivian was the last known person to see him alive. With the police and the press both eager to name a culprit in the high-profile case, she finds herself the primary murder suspect.She can’t flee town without endangering the people she loves, but Vivian isn’t the sort of girl to go down without a fight. She''ll cash in every favor she has from the criminals she calls friends to prove she had no connection to the dead man. But she can''t prove what isn''t true.The more Vivian digs into the man’s life, and as the police close in on her, the harder it is to avoid the truth: someone she knows wanted him dead. And the best way to get away with murder is to set up a girl like Vivian to take the fall.

Last Dance before Dawn is the final book in the luscious, mysterious, and queer Nightingale mystery series by Katharine Schellman, set in 1920s New York.Vivian Kelly has finally created a home and a family at the glamorous speakeasy known as The Nightingale, where no one cares who you are in the daytime. After all, in the underground world of 1920s New York City, everyone has a secret to keep, and they’re on the Nightingale''s dance floor to leave those secrets behind. But sometimes it takes more than a dance to escape your past. When a stranger from Chicago shows up at The Nightingale looking to settle old scores, Vivian and the Nightingale''s owner, the mysterious and alluring Honor Huxley, send him packing. They soon discover, though, that the stranger was just a warning. Slowly, the people who have made The Nightingale their home realize that someone is following them. Hunting them. And that someone won’t stop until they unravel a mystery that’s been cold for years: a missing girl, a boy out for revenge, and a truck full of cash that disappeared in a job gone horribly wrong. Vivian just wants to protect the people she loves, and she''s willing to dig into the dirt of the past to make it happen. But some questions are safer left unanswered, and now that Vivian has built a family for herself, she has more to lose than ever before.

First in a captivating Jazz age mystery series from author Katharine Schellman, Last Call at the Nightingale beckons readers into a darkly glamorous speakeasy where music, liquor, and secrets flow."Schellman is at the top of her craft and delivers a murder mystery with clever twists and turns and memorable personalities."—Denny S. Bryce, Bestselling Author of Wild Women and the BluesNew York, 1924. Vivian Kelly''s days are filled with drudgery, from the tenement lodging she shares with her sister to the dress shop where she sews for hours every day.But at night, she escapes to The Nightingale, an underground dance hall where illegal liquor flows and the band plays the Charleston with reckless excitement. With a bartender willing to slip her a free glass of champagne and friends who know the owner, Vivian can lose herself in the music. No one asks where she came from or how much money she has. No one bats an eye if she flirts with men or women as long as she can keep up on the dance floor. At The Nightingale, Vivian forgets the dangers of Prohibition-era New York and finds a place that feels like home.But then she discovers a body behind the club, and those dangers come knocking.Caught in a police raid at the Nightingale, Vivian discovers that the dead man wasn''t the nameless bootlegger he first appeared. With too many people assuming she knows more about the crime than she does, Vivian finds herself caught between the dangers of the New York''s underground and the world of the city''s wealthy and careless, where money can hide any sin and the lives of the poor are considered disposable...including Vivian''s own.

In The Last Drop of Hemlock, the dazzling follow up to Last Call at the Nightingale, even a dance can come with a price...The rumor went through the Nightingale like a flood, quietly rising, whispers hovering on lips in pockets of silence.Life as a working-class girl in Prohibition-era New York isn’t safe or easy. But Vivian Kelly has a new job at the Nightingale, an underground speakeasy where the jazz is hot and the employees look out for each other in a world that doesn’t care about them. Things are finally looking up for her and her sister Florence... until the night Vivian learns that her friend Bea''s uncle, a bouncer at the Nightingale, has died.His death is ruled a suicide, but Bea isn’t so convinced. She knew her uncle was keeping a secret: a payoff from a mob boss that was going to take him out of the tenements and into a better life. Now, the money is missing.Though her better judgment tells her to stay out of it, Vivian agrees to help Bea find the truth about her uncle''s death. But they uncover more than they expected when rumors surface of a mysterious letter writer, blackmailing Vivian''s poorest neighbors for their most valuable possessions, threatening poison if they don''t comply.Death is always a heartbeat away in Jazz Age New York, where mob bosses rule the back alleys and cops take bootleggers’ hush money. But whoever is targeting Vivian’s poor and unprotected neighbors is playing a different game. With the Nightingale''s dangerously lovely owner, Honor, worried for her employees'' safety and Bea determined to discover who is responsible for her uncle''s death, Vivian once again finds herself digging through a dead man''s past in hopes of stopping a killer.