Readers of well-crafted historical fiction will be drawn in by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith's sure-footed Mutual Interest, which is set in turn-of-the century Manhattan, in the aftermath of the Gilded Age. Wolfgang-Smith is nothing short of virtuosic in her wry and witty world-building, which immediately immerses readers into a rough-and-tumble capitalist quagmire where the stakes are incredibly high and safety nets are totally absent.
To survive on her limited prospects, Vivian Lesperance relies on her charm and manipulative abilities. Her latest plan finds the awkward, sexually surreptitious, socially ascendent Midwestern transplant Oscar Schmidt. Vivian assists Oscar in navigating the competitive waters of his business and muffles the potential reputational damage of both of their same-sex adventures by marrying him. But threats to their unconventional union--blackmail, social expectation, and justified labor unrest--loom, and any of them could dismantle the home they've so carefully constructed for themselves.
This is a novel of families won and lost, love, envy, and betrayal told in a remarkably fresh and entertaining way, with immersive period detail and compelling emotional stakes. --Elizabeth DeNoma, executive editor, DeNoma Literary Services, Seattle, Wash.