The Lady Upstairs by Halley Sutton

 

After a disastrous workplace romance, Jo finds herself on a Los Angles street, crying in her car.  That's where she is found by Lou who talks with her and takes her to a diner to eat and pull herself together.  By the time they separate, Jo has a new friend and a new job although it's not one she ever thought she would have.

For Lou is the recruiter for a blackmail scheme.  The team targets rich men of which there are many in LA, sends a girl to seduce him, takes photos and blackmails them.  Jo starts as one of the girls who do the seducing but three years on, she is now a recruiter.  The rest of the team is Lou, Jackel who is the photographer and Jo's lover and the Lady.  The Lady runs everything and no one is allowed to see her or know anything about her except Lou.  

Still, things are going well until they aren't.  Jo's latest girl, Ellen, has decided to back out of the game right before the pictures are taken and the money is collected.  That causes Jo issues as she owes the Lady money she had planned to pay back out of this job.  Unsure of what to do, she gives Ellen the thousands that were meant to be given to the police as a bribe, so now she owes both the Lady and the police.  Can Jo pull everything together and find a way to break away from the team?

This is Halley Sutton's debut novel and it is one I won't soon forget.  It is written as a modern noir and the reader can imagine the streets of Los Angeles, not the ones for the tourists but the gritty ones for those struggling to make it.  It's a novel with cynicism about male desire, cops on the take and a cutthroat business where no one can trust anyone else.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.