Criminal Gold — Ann Aptaker

Midnight, New York Harbor, 1949. Cantor Gold, dapper dyke-about-town, smuggler of fine art, waits in her boat under the Brooklyn Bridge for racketeer Gregory Ortine. In the shadow of the bridge, he'll toss Cantor a satchel of cash, and she'll toss him a pouch containing a priceless jewel. But the plan, and the jewel, sink when a woman in a red sequined dress drops from the bridge and slams onto Cantor's boat. She is Opal Shaw, Society Page darling and fiancée of murder-for-hire kingpin Sig Loreale. Through a night of danger, desire, and double-cross, Cantor must satisfy Loreale's vengeance, stay ahead of an angry Ortine, and untangle the knots of murder tightening around Opal's best friend and keeper of her dirty secrets, Celeste Copley, a seductress who excites Cantor's passion but snares her in a labyrinth of lies. The lies explode in a collision of love, loyalty, lust...and death.