Willow Pond

by Julie Mitchell

The Roaring Twenties have crumbled into the Great Depression, but the bootlegging business still flourishes. Virginia Kingsley, New York's toughest and most successful speakeasy owner, has only one soft spot-her baby grandnephew Todd. And lounge lizard Rudy Strauss, her current lover, kidnaps him. Todd's parents-Virginia's niece Laura and her philandering movie star husband Phillip Austin-are devastated. The police find few clues, and speculation and rumors abound in the media circus that follows the celebrity abduction. Only one reporter, Erich Muller, seems to care enough about the child's welfare and the parents' feelings to report the case responsibly. When Phillip Austin insists on delivering the million-dollar ransom himself, Rudy coldcocks him and runs off with the money. But where's Todd? Laura and Phillip pin their hopes on tracking down a disgruntled former employee, the police pursue what few leads they have, and Erich Muller suspects Virginia is behind the kidnapping even as he and Laura are falling in love. Only Virginia has figured out the truth-but she can't tell anyone, for fear of losing her niece's affection and having the police ransack her life. So she pursues her own investigation, shaking down, threatening, and even killing one petty crook after another in her relentless hunt for Rudy. Todd's looming absence shapes and directs their lives, thwarting love and happiness yet incessantly fueling their actions, even as their searches seem more and more hopeless. In the end the hunters converge upon him--with disaster for some and revelation for others.

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