" In the tradition of Rebecca and the more recent The alienist, Scarlet Women evokes the raffish depths beneath the prim Victorian facade of New York City in the 1870's, generating a powerful story of delicious sin and corruption and sudden death, told with impeccable authenticity of place and personage and ambience. Here are the assorted rogues, ladies of convenience, a double-murder featuring a private investigator named Harp, himself on close terms with the likes of Jim Fisk, Jay Gould and Emma Wells, proprietress of a preeminent "parlor house." --BOOK JACKET