Shem Fleenor

Seven Days in a Magic City of Sin Shem Fleenor

This work of historical fiction is a Southern Gothic murder mystery set in Miami, Florida. Sexism, misogyny, racism, consumerism, violence, and obsession with fame and fortune are key themes in the story. This story is set in the midst of an American empire that is roiling due to class conflicts between workers and employers, which exacerbate racial conflicts. All this conflict is concomitant to increased social mobility and demands for the franchise amongst women and African Americans, which coincides with the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the Red Scare and Palmer Raids in American cities, which imperils the story's protagonist, Orit Abrahams. Orit is assigned to uncover endemic corruption in Miami's booming real estate industry and local politics. Her investigation, however, puts her dangerously at odds with civic leaders deeply invested in municipal graft. Not only is Orit a potential victim of a murderer in the midst of a sadistic killing spree, but some civic leaders in the Magic City come to wonder if she's not actually the killer, motivated by her own eagerness to undermine Miami's booming pyramid scheme of a real estate market in order to create headlines for the fledgling and nearly bankrupt muckraking newspaper that emploiys her.