Review: The Lady Upstairs by Halley Sutton

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This is Sutton's debut work and she has she come out strong with this female centered, noir, crime thriller. She's an author I'm going to be watching.

It calls itself The Lady Upstairs Staffing Agency. All nice and legal and they even pay taxes. What they really do are run badger games, set up honeypots to seduce marks who can afford to pay for the images that caught them in flagrante delicto. The employees of the "agency" get an envelope with the name of the mark from The Lady herself who is never seen. I couldn't help but think of Charlie's Angels with The Lady as Charlie and Lou as The Lady's Bosley.

Jo was recruited to be one of the one of the Lady's girls by Lou who recognized someone who knows men are assholes and wouldn't have a problem taking them down. Jo has worked her way up to become a recruiter herself as well as training the girls and planning and executing cases, as they refer to their blackmailing operations. Working with Lou and Jo is Jackal, Jo's sometimes lover, who takes care of the technical side, wiring hotel rooms, recording the action.

Jo owes The Lady a lot of money for getting her out of a jam and the latest case should see the debt resolved. Unfortunately, the case doesn't go well, setting up a chain of events that will take the reader on a noir thrillfest.

Sutton has captured the essence of a noir character in Jo's first person narrative. The reader needs to be willing to accept the bleakness of noir; there are no good people in the story. Well, maybe one or two are less worse than the others. You might root for Jo but it isn't because there is anything redeeming about her. She is desperate to salvage the case, settle her debt, and, at the same time, keep her screw-ups from The Lady who has suggested that she could be "retired". But like a true noir protagonist, Jo has a self-destructive streak in her alcoholism and every action sinks her in deeper. With the police on one side and The Lady on the other, it looks like Jo has very few escape options.

The story is fast-paced and thrilling will well developed characters and flowing plot. The ending is excellent and a surprise. I did have a few inklings of the direction things might go but didn't find it had a telegraphed ending. If you like female centered stories and you like noir then this is the book for you because you get both. 

Keywords: honeypot, badger game, thriller, crime novel, noir