A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley

Published by Knopf on December 6, 2022

An unfortunate marriage at the age of 18 to a man twenty years older takes Eliza Ripple from Michigan to Monterey. When her husband is killed in a bar two years later, Eliza begins a career as a prostitute, working for a madam who takes good care of her employees. In 1851, Monterey is relatively lawless, although its residents enforce their own brand of justice if they deem the task worthwhile. Neither the townspeople nor the sheriff are particularly troubled when prostitutes are murdered.

Eliza is a pleasant young woman who earns a good living as a prostitute. Some of her customers are sailors ashore between voyages. One is in the construction business. One is a lawyer who makes vague references to a wife. One is an older man who brings her to his home where his wife seems tolerant of his adventures. One takes her out to dinner; another only meets her in the brothel but seems to enjoy her companionship as well as her body.

Eliza befriends Jean, a woman who works in a bordello that services women. Eliza spends much of her free time with Jean, roaming around Monterey and the surrounding countryside, occasionally on rented horses. When they discover a dead body, Eliza’s keen powers of observation help her identify the murder victim as a prostitute who once worked in her establishment. The term “serial killer” had not yet been coined, but Eliza and Jean begin to connect the disappearances of multiple working girls. They decide to track down the killer.

The story follows Eliza for a couple of years after her husband’s death. Eliza’s haphazard investigation of the missing prostitutes drives the plot, but the deeper story is told by the details of Eliza’s life. As she considers whether each of her customers might be the killer, she evaluates the behavior of all men. Some, like her dead husband, are cruel. Some are superficially kind but seem to be on the edge of violence. Some are needy. Some are indifferent. A few are genuinely decent.

Eliza and Jane discuss the topics of the time — slavery and the threat of a war that might divide the country — defying the understanding that, as women, they are not capable of expressing meaningful opinions. Eliza’s customers tend to pontificate, sometimes discussing political or philosophical questions that interest Eliza, although they do not invite her to do anything but listen. She takes advantage of her free time to read Dickens and The Scarlet Letter, exercising her mind in ways that her madam encourages, even if her customers might regard her intellectual pursuits as a waste of time. Reading Poe introduces her to Dupin and suggests a model of detection that will help her investigate the deaths of her professional colleagues. Dupin’s powers of observation parallel Jane Smiley’s observant attention to detail as Eliza and Jean search the streets and faces of Monterey for clues.

The “hooker with a heart of gold” is a familiar character, but Smiley does not content herself with the familiar. Eliza is something of an early feminist. She views prostitution not as subjugation by men but as a pragmatic path to freedom, much like the underground railroad that interests Jean. Eliza’s husband steered her course until her madam took note of her after her husband’s death and began to direct her life as a working girl. Smiley encourages the reader to wonder whether Eliza will eventually become the captain of her own ship and how she might find a less dangerous occupation. At the novel’s end, Smiley supplies a satisfying answer.

The plot is equally satisfying, culminating in a moment of peril and resourcefulness as Eliza and Jane learn who is responsible for the dead prostitutes. At the same time, Poe fans should not expect the second coming of Dupin. Crime and detection provide the novel’s framework, but they are secondary to the novel’s other virtues. Smiley’s prose is a model of elegant understatement. While the novel is not particularly suspenseful — I would categorize it as a pleasant historical drama, not as a thriller — I do not imagine that suspense was Smiley’s intent. A Dangerous Business is the quiet story of a woman who comes of age in a difficult time for single women (as most times have been), who learns about life, and who strives to benefit from those lessons. Readers who expect nothing more will likely enjoy the book for what it is.

RECOMMENDED