A Pair of Aces

New York City, the 1930s. Eunice Carter is an assistant district attorney, the first Black woman to hold that post in Manhattan. She has a case theory none of her colleagues will touch: instead of chasing Lucky Luciano's bootlegging or his gambling rackets, go after the brothels his organization runs across the city.

To build it, she needs Polly Adler, who runs one of Manhattan's most exclusive brothels, hosting clients from the mob and city hall alike. Luciano has recently put Adler's own employees at risk, and that shared grievance draws a prosecutor and a madam onto the same side of a case neither woman expected to argue.

Working outside the channels the district attorney's office can officially use, Carter and Adler assemble their evidence through a network of women who can go places no detective can. They gather testimony piece by piece while Luciano's people watch for exactly this. Every meeting risks exposing them both.

A Pair of Aces follows their alliance through to trial, a case that reaches further into Luciano's organization than any brought before it. Built from the real prosecution of Lucky Luciano and the actual Eunice Carter, the novel keeps its two leads, and the class and racial lines between them, at the center of every scene. It is a Reese's Book Club pick.