Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford is £0.99 in the UK (
Kobo,
Amazon)
Alternate history. Was on several "books of the year" lists.
Ian Mond:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6003016571
Adam Roberts:
https://sibilantfricative.blogspot.c...s-of-2023.html
Quote:
A thrilling tale of murder and mystery in a city where history has run a little differently.
In a city that never was, in an America that never was, on a snowy night at the end of winter, two detectives find a body on the roof of a skyscraper.
It's 1922, and Americans are drinking in speakeasies, dancing to jazz, stepping quickly to the tempo of modern times. Beside the Mississippi, the ancient city of Cahokia lives on - a teeming industrial metropolis, containing every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. But that body on the roof is about to spark off a week that will spill the city's secrets, and bring it, against a soundtrack of wailing clarinets and gunfire, either to destruction or rebirth.
Francis Spufford returns, with a lovingly created, richly pleasure-giving, epically scaled tale set in the golden age of wicked entertainments.
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