Divided Lives

Mystery, blackmail, love, and crime. Lottie tries to figure out who to trust as she navigates through the trial of a lifetime.New York City (1912) is a city divided: Greenwich Village where rejected tradition is regularly flouted, and Manhattan where it is strictly upheld. Lottie Flannigan successfully balances both sides. While embracing a bohemian lifestyle, she maintains a legal career clerking for conservative Justice Goff in Midtown. Committed and dedicated, Lotte begins work on a high-profile criminal case involving local Police Officer Charles BeckerSuddenly her professional and personal lives collide as she finds herself caught in a blackmail scheme that seeks to disclose her most intimate choices if she doesn't do as they say. Is this related to the Becker Trail? Who stands to gain the most from this verdict: the justice? the prosecutor? the local police officers or lurking gangsters? Maybe even her missing lover--could she be a part of the blackmail scheme?In a fascinating look into a scandalous turn-of-the-century trial and ever-changing Greenwich Village social norms, the book puts Lottie in the middle of Police Lieutenant Charles Becker's Conspiracy trial. Read more