Bright Lights

Nothing more shocking than a late supper disturbs the regular rhythm of life in the house – until the night Fannie Gillespie returns from a party acting strangely, only to be found dead by morning. Locked inside her room with the key still in the door, she appears to have hanged herself.

To the other boarders, Fannie was full of life, a young woman who loved fashion, fun and late-night outings with a rotating cast of admirers – from a motion picture actor to an amusement park showman. But as the police dig deeper, a more unsettling portrait emerges: of a girl increasingly jittery, peeking over her shoulder, flinching at shadows, and rushing home as though someone – or something – was hunting her.

First published in 1924, Bright Lights is a razor-sharp portrait of New York in the Roaring Twenties, where the brightest dreams sometimes burn out the fastest.