Flappers, Flasks and Foul Play

Before Las Vegas, Galveston, Texas was called the “Sin City of the Southwest.” Real-life rival gangs fight over booze and bars during Prohibition in this soft-boiled Jazz Age mystery, inspired by actual events. Jasmine Cross, a 21-year-old society reporter, feels caught between two clashing cultures: the seedy speakeasy underworld and the snooty social circles she covers in the Galveston Gazette. After a big-shot banker with a hidden past collapses at the Oasis-a speakeasy secretly owned by her black-sheep half-brother, Sammy Cook-Jazz suspects foul play. Was it an accident or a mob hit? Soon handsome young Prohibition Agent James Burton raids the Oasis, threatening to shut it down if Sammy doesn’t cooperate. Suspicious, he pursues Jazz, hoping for information and more, but despite her mixed feelings she refuses to rat on Sammy. As turf wars escalate between the Downtown and Beach gangs, Sammy is accused of murder. To find the killer, Jazz must risk her life and career, exposing the dark side of Galveston’s glittering society.

Author Biography

Ellen Mansoor Collier is a freelance magazine writer and editor whose articles, essays and short stories have been published in a variety of national magazines. A flapper at heart, she loves the style and spirit of the Jazz Age, but couldn’t live in Houston, Texas without air-conditioning. She graduated with a degree in Magazine Journalism from The University of Texas at Austin. FLAPPERS, FLASKS AND FOUL PLAY is her first novel (2012), followed by the sequel, BATHING BEAUTIES, BOOZE AND BULLETS (2013), GOLD DIGGERS, GAMBLERS AND GUNS (2014) and VAMPS, VILLAINS AND VAUDEVILLE (2015).