Guest Author Article: Brooklyn in the Roaring ‘20s by Matt Cost

Welcome to Matter of Inquiry!

Mystery writer Matt Cost is with us this morning with an article on the setting of his new mystery series.
The blog is yours, Matt...

---

---

Brooklyn in the Roaring 20s
by Matt Cost

​Perhaps the most exciting place and time to have ever lived was Brooklyn in the Roaring ‘20s. This is why I chose to set my historical PI mystery there and then. It was a time of Prohibition and speakeasies, jazz and the shimmy, moving pictures and baseball—and above all else, a full-throttled expression of living life to the fullest.
 
In Velma Gone Awry, I attempt to bottle this ebullience of esprit within the pages of a mystery novel. 8 Ballo is a PI in 1923 Brooklyn, living and working in Bushwick, when he is hired to find the missing adult daughter of a German businessman. Thus, the caper begins, and the high jinks ensue.
 
8’s first stop in his search is at the Algonquin Round Table presided over by Dorothy Parker, who is an acquaintance of Velma. The wisecracking wit of Parker and the other members of this esteemed literary circle are put out on display. Through the course of the book, 8 and Parker become good friends, as she aids him in finding the where and why of Velma.
 
After Dorothy goes off elsewhere with the group for cocktails, 8 meets and interviews the very-hungover married couple, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. He will also travel out to visit them later in the book in Great Neck, or should I say East and West Egg, setting for The Great Gatsby.
 
Next is a visit to Harlem to speak with Coleman ‘Bean’ Hawkins, who at one point had a dalliance with Velma. This legendary jazzman weaves his way through the pages, as do other prodigious musical talents of the era such as Fletcher ‘Smack’ Henderson, Ethel Waters, and many more.
 
Places such as Coney Island are brought to life as 8 searches for Velma. The carnival atmosphere with the rides, the debauchery, the circus acts, and the illegal speakeasies permeate the pages. The sheer energy of Coney Island, with the recent advent of the nickel train, which brought the poor as well as the rich to the beach, is caught in all of its vibrant colors, smells, and sounds.
 
Speakeasies and rum running can’t take place without gangsters, and the likes of Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Charlie Luciano, and Arnold Rothstein have appearances. Rothstein is credited with fixing the 1919 World Series and the other three became incredibly powerful, first beginning Murder Incorporated at the Candy Store in Gravesend and the Back Room in lower Manhattan. The Back Room is still in operation, retaining its 1920’s speakeasy flavor, and I recently got a tour of the back of the Back Room, through a special bookcase doorway into the secret lair where these Italian and Jewish gangsters plotted.
 
Of course, New York City in the 1920’s wouldn’t be complete without a cameo from Babe Ruth, in all of his brash bravado style. Travel to the top of the Hotel Bossert, into the old Sicily of Williamsburg, the upscale Brooklyn Heights, and the neighborhood of Bushwick. Trolleys, new Yellow Cabs, Tommy Guns, corruption, and vice mix with entertainment and excitement.
 
The flavor, bustle, excitement, and verve of Brooklyn and New York City in the Roaring 20’s is brought to life in Velma Gone Awry. Follow 8 Ballo and his gang of friends as he tries to uncover where she’s gone and why. And find out why he has a numeral for a name. 

---

​Award-winning author Matt Cost brings us back to Brooklyn in the Roaring ’20s and introduces us to Hungarian private eye, 8 Ballo, who is hired to find the daughter of a wealthy businessman. The search will lead him to cross paths with Dorothy Parker, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Coleman Hawkins, Bugsy Siegel, Babe Ruth, and many more as he tries to uncover why Velma went awry.

8 Ballo’s mother was certain he was going to be born a girl, but when he comes out a boy, she writes down simply the number 8, as he has seven older siblings. She meant to change it to a real name at some point but never got around to it.

Now, in his mid-thirties, 8 is a college educated man, a veteran of the Great War, jilted in love, and has his own private investigator business. He enjoys his friends, a good book, jazz music, and a very simple life. When he is hired to find the young flapper daughter of a German businessman, life suddenly becomes much more complicated.

Coming April 12!
Amazon Pre-order Link: https://www.amazon.com/Velma-Gone-Awry-Brooklyn-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0BDVBSLHN

---

---

About the Author:

Matt Cost was a history major at Trinity College. He owned a mystery bookstore, a video store, and a gym, before serving a ten-year sentence as a junior high school teacher. In 2014 he was released and began writing. And that’s what he does. He writes histories and mysteries.
 
Cost has published four books in the Mainely Mystery series, with the fifth, Mainely Wicked, due out in August of 2023. He has also published four books in the Clay Wolfe Trap series, with the fifth, Pirate Trap, due out in December of 2023.
 
For historical novels, Cost has published At Every Hazard and its sequel, Love in a Time of Hate, as well as I am Cuba. In April of 2023, Cost will combine his love of histories and mysteries into a historical PI mystery set in 1923 Brooklyn, Velma Gone Awry.

Contact the Author:
Email:               matthew-cost@comcast.net
Website:         https://www.mattcost.net
Twitter:           @MattCost8
Facebook:       https://www.facebook.com/matt.cost.3
Instagram:       https://www.instagram.com/mlangdoncost/
Goodreads:     https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13910694.Matthew_Langdon_Cost

---

---