The Mayor of Maxwell Street provides some excellent character portraits, but falls afoul of its many moving plot points. That keeps it from being a DIK, but it’s still a decently captivating love triangle and mystery.

Penelope – Nelly – Sawyer’s parents made their fortune breeding horses, and they’re not only one of the richest Black families in their Kentucky hometown, they’re one of the richest in America. The unexpected death of her older brother Elder makes Nelly the heir to the family fortune – and forces her out into the social whirl, where her mother hopes she’ll soon make a rich match.

But Nelly has higher aims, and loathes the classism through which she must swim. She secretly works as a crusading journalist for The Defender, a local paper. Her latest job is to ferret out the real identity of the titular Mayor of Maxwell Street, who’s all but running the town unlawfully.

While trying to get answers, Nelly finds herself being courted by two men. Jay Shorey, is a biracial, white-passing speakeasy owner down from Chicago who has eyes and ears everywhere and connections back to the bootleggers in that area. The other, Tomás Escalante Roche, is a polo player who has experienced racism himself. Nelly turns to Jay for help with the article while fighting her attraction to him and being courted by Tomás. She uses Jay as an entrée into the world of organized crime in the city and goes undercover – while also acting as a debutante.

The deeper the formerly-sheltered Nelly gets into her investigation, the more she understands the prejudice governing her hometown. But which man will she choose, will the Mayor be found, and how will she define herself as a Black woman going forward?

The answer is complicated, but the end result is a solid historical mystery rife with feeling and a strong period flavor. The horror of Jim Crow laws permeate The Mayor of Maxwell Street, poking up between its bootleggers and fancy dress balls. The author doesn’t shy away from ugly times, and uses its very interesting heroine to probe the truths of the era.

I love journalist characters, and Nelly’s curiosity and belief in the truth definitely mark her out as an excellent one. I loved watching her grow up and mature and become much wiser as the story progressed.

I also liked Jay and Tomás, each in their own way. It may seem obvious as to who Nelly will pick, but one man does stand out from the crowd (and yes, if you’re picking up those Gatsby allusions, some of them do pay off).

The book’s biggest problem is that – even at 500 pages – it doesn’t linger long on the big moments. Some of Nelly’s debutante parties seem to take full chapters while important climatic events only last a few pages. A lot of moments beg for more space and time, which resulted in a lot of water-treading.

But the characters are what kept my interest in The Mayor Maxwell Street alive. It’s a perfectly good book, but not an outstanding one.