This one was a no-go for me. Had to DNF. The beginning felt somewhat promising but nothing really grabbed me to keep reading.

Started strong and had a great premise but the middle was a little slow for me. Pretty good twists too, will definitely be looking out for this author.

Pros :: Isn’t it funny to come across a book, not know anything about it, really, except for the book cover, the brief synopsis of the plot yet know you really, really want to read it? This is one of those books for me. It’s not my usual genre and I’m so happy that I read it. I enjoyed how different it was from other books, the main character of Jo and the way she felt about Lou. The plot had some great twists and turns ( I did figure out who the Lady Upstairs was, however I wasn’t 100% confident I was right). The conversations were believable, excellent foreshadowing and really good pacing. Scenes and scenery were well done. “Cops always smell a little different. Self-righteousness smells like sweat and pencil shavings covered up with woodsy cologne and stale mint gum.” (55%) Excited to read more from this author. “Pretty Little Wife” is a great companion to this one.

Cons :: Nada

Cover art :: 5 out of 5

This book was so interesting and the premise was pretty unique. Jo's job is to blackmail well-known, very rich gross men in Hollywood. But then she is accused of murdering one the men she is supposed to be blackmailing and has to figure out how to get out from under the eyes of the cops. And while she's at it, she wants to know who is really the "Lady Upstairs" that pays her. this has some really decent twists and turns and a pretty shocking ending. A decent debut!

Unfortunately I ended this book at about 33%. I just couldn't get into it. There wasn't anything wrong with this book per sé it just wasn't for me.

This debut thriller drops the reader in the middle of a con woman's life, just before something huge goes wrong. As she tries to pull herself out of it, she sets up one last con and finds that there are even more secrets to uncover. This was a great, quick thriller with a devious heroine that it's hard not to like!

So, there's noir, and then there's this sticky mess. Also? If a main character/narrator can't even attempt to look after her own interests, I really don't see why I should care about her.

Gripping, action packed noir with tough heroines and splashed with just the right amount of feminism in this wildly entertaining first novel by Hailey Sutton. This book takes you on a wild cat and mouse ride that will have you holding your breath and peeling between your fingers watching to see what’s next all the way to the twisty, edgy, crazy taut brilliant conclusion. Make sure your insurance is paid up as those last pages in the novel will have you turning pages so fast your fingers may catch a flame!

Excellent first novel from a lady I am sure we are going to see great things from. Highly recommend you race out for your copy of The Lady Upstairs without delay!

What?! You’re still here ?! Go!! Now!! Get yours today!!

My deepest appreciation to NetGalley, Penguin Group/ G.P. Putnam’s Sons for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my completely unbiased review.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Lady Upstairs started off a bit slow for me. Eventually things picked up but kind of simmered once again on the slowness. In it, you will meet Jo. Her whole job sounds kind of cool because she blackmails people. Well, not just any people but either way - it sounded interesting.

Unfortunately, the whole cat and mouse game wasn't as twisty as I thought it was going to be. Even though I wasn't actually thinking of someone as the big suspect reveal until around 75% of the book.. I wasn't surprised by it either. Mostly because little things weren't making sense to me in the beginning. Then it got a bit confusing towards the middle but then something clicked and I knew.

Then there's Jo. She was an okay character. I thought she was going to be a bit more badass than she was. I'm also kind of annoyed that she didn't seem to realize what was going on until the very end. She was there and saw things but still she didn't want to see it. Or know the truth. Then once she did I just wanted to scream at her.

In the end, it was an okay book with a sort of interesting ending.

This is a great story in a number of ways: It’s fun, it’s well-paced, and it’s helmed by an intriguing protagonist. But it has two flaws (one minor and one very major) that lessened my overall enjoyment of this book.

The first and lesser flaw is that it’s pretty easy to figure out who the lady is very early on in the story. Even if you don’t guess it, by the time you’re told, you’ll feel like you knew all along and wonder how the protagonist could have missed it.

Because it was mostly a fun read anyway, that alone isn’t enough to damage overall perception of a book, but this—the story’s larger flaw—absolutely is: I have a huge problem with a plot that presents women debasing themselves as “feminism.”

The nature of what these women do is, of course, a little seedy, a little creepy. You can’t wrestle a pig without getting muddy, after all. But I have a huge problem with women actually sleeping with men in order to extract evidence to use later for blackmail or revenge.

It’s not because the men don’t deserve whatever they get. These awful fellows deserve whatever the ladies can dish out. And if that involves flirting with a man or tempting him in order to get your blackmail money shot? So be it. A little dangerous, maybe, but nothing to be ashamed of.

But if you’re actually sleeping with men in order to take revenge on them because of their prior misdeeds which involve mistreatment of other women they slept with? Well...Do what needs must, I suppose, but don’t try to sell it to me as empowerment.

There’s nothing empowering about debasing yourself for revenge, and that goes double for convincing other, more vulnerable women to do it for you.

To that end, I liked Jo, but really, she probably belongs in prison. There are loads of revenge-driven stories out there (many of which also include a murder) where I am 100% rooting for the woman at the center of it to get away clean.

And if it were only the men she targeted at stake here, I would have wanted it for Jo too. But the effective pimping out of younger, vulnerable women for your own gain while selling it to them as “empowering?” Absolutely not.

The Lady Upstairs is a dark, modern-day noir, revenge thriller about a woman named Jo who takes down the most awful men via blackmail, but is also in the midst of paying back an excruciating debt to her enigma of a boss, the Lady Upstairs. Jo is close to paying off her debt and finally being in the clear when a job goes sideways and a target is murdered. This puts Jo on the LAPD’s radar and she needs to think fast to avoid the consequences. Can Jo pull off an even bigger con to get her freedom? The plot is fast-paced and well-written. The characters are well-developed and feel realistic. If you enjoy noir thrillers with flawed characters, be sure to check out The Lady Upstairs today.

The lady upstairs is the operator of a ring of prostitutes who blackmail their rich marks. The lady’s identity is secret, but it is pretty easy to figure out. Jim Thompson or James M. Cain could have given this plot some bite and menace. Unfortunately, this book is just tacky. It isn’t clever enough to overcome the ickiness of it’s premise. Jo, the protagonist, drinks a lot and has sex a lot, with both her male and female colleagues and marks. She is also in charge of recruiting other women to be pimped out. During most of the book nothing interesting happens, then murder ensues, and I didn’t care. Jo (and the author ) try to rationalize this nastiness with some feminist pronouncements. I don’t agree with this definition of feminism. Really, I’m sorry I kept reading. 2.5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

The Lady Upstairs is a dark, provocative, modern day noir thriller about women doling out vigilante-style justice in the form of blackmail to some powerful men in Hollywood with questionable ethics. The story has a decidedly feminist voice with the boss aka the lady upstairs deciding which men need knocking off their pedestal for violating a code of conduct she considers unsuitable. Lou, the only woman who knows the identity of the "lady", serves as the liaison between her and the working girls. Our protagonist Jo has almost paid off her debt to the lady upstairs and is planning to get out of the business once she does. One bad decision and suddenly Jo is in over her head and faced with helping dispose of a dead client. With both her unknown boss and the cops hot on her tail, Jo's only option is to pull one more job - this time entirely on her own. She'll make back the money she needs and be free.

The Lady Upstairs is an intriguing, unique thriller that's leans heavily on a character driven plot line. It starts off strong with the setup and introduction of characters. There's a cynical tone and morality playing out with justice being handed down in a twisted match game of wits. I found the writing and story structure to be solid, and enjoyed the old Hollywood ties and ambiance. However, the story begins to wobble midway through as readers are abandoned to deal with Jo's repeated drunken ramblings. The results are a slight loss of focus and slowing pace. It left my mind rambling much as Jo did. The pace picks up again as the story rolls toward the finish line and while I wasn't shocked by the big reveal, I was entertained. This is Halley Sutton's debut novel, and she's off to a great start. Highly recommended to fans of mystery and suspense with a dark edge.

So twisty and full of surprises. The cover and content is brilliant and definitely worth a read. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Halley Sutton’s debut novel The Lady Upstairs is a modern day noir with a cat and mouse trope that is bound to leave readers on the edge of their seat until the very end.

Jo’s job is to blackmail salacious men in Los Angeles for her boss who is known only as The Lady Upstairs and Jo’s coworker Lou is the only person aware of The Lady Upstairs' true identity. Jo is incredibly curious as to find out who this mysterious woman is and she is willing to go behind her back to find out more about her. When one of Jo’s latest targets ends up murdered, the LAPD and The Lady Upstairs believe that Jo is the reason for the murder and that she needs to be taken down. As Jo takes on a new job behind the Lady’s back, secrets begin to unfold around The Lady Upstairs and her team.

Sutton has created a powerful female presence when it comes to the characters in The Lady Upstairs. Each of the women in this story take what they want and are unapologetic in the way they behave. The only critique for this would be that the women are all quite similar and thus the story does lack a diversity in its characters. Jo in particular is the type of woman that women want to be and men want to be with. She is unafraid to be herself, she does what she wants without having to explain herself, and she has a sharp tongue that can do some serious damage. Sutton has written Jo as such an empowering character and she is so unlike other characters out there so the reader will likely remember her even when the story is finished.

Halley Sutton's "The Lady Upstairs" is set in Los Angeles. Its heroine, Jo, is a lost soul with a host of problems, including a habit of suppressing her inner demons with alcohol. When Jo is at a particularly low ebb, a gorgeous woman named Lou offers her a job that is lucrative but unsavory. Lou—who works for a boss known only as "the lady upstairs"—informs Jo that she makes a living hiring attractive females to seduce affluent men. Soon, Lou teaches Jo to select and indoctrinate additional recruits for their business. Robert Jackal, a colleague of the enterprising duo, takes photographs and videos of their victims in compromising positions. The extortionists subsequently demand hefty sums to keep the incriminating evidence secret.

This novel is a sordid and atmospheric look at the underbelly of L. A. The settings and situations are bleak and sleazy, and it is unpleasant to observe the ways in which Jo and Lou callously manipulate their naive employees. It is difficult to care about a pair of self-serving and amoral connivers who have so few redeeming features. The author wraps up her story with some surprising and distasteful developments. There are no winners in this cynical and grim tale in which everyone and everything is for sale.

It is a well-plotted mystery with interesting characters and interesting twists. Full of gritty LA it is about Jo who needs to plot revenge on her former boyfriend. Now she’s working for The Lady Upstairs which is a front for elaborately staged sexual blackmail schemes and one of her “jobs” backfires. Sutton is an author to watch if you like noir fiction.

The Lady Upstairs is a feminist noir thriller about power and revenge, and how easy it is to lose yourself to both.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions in this review are honest and my own.

Looking for something very noir? Try this for a tale that at times veers into the grotesque but which is always pulled back from the brink by Jo, a woman with few scruples. Jo works for the Lady Upstairs, a mysterious figure with blue nail polish, setting up and blackmailing powerful men. She's run afoul of the Lady because she owes her money- a lot of money- and that debt grows when she pays Ellen, a woman who is refusing to keep working a loathsome Hollywood mogul, the money meant to go to a police contact. Things go off the rails when the mogul dies and Jo must scramble to deal with the fall out. THat's not all though- there's also an op being planned against a man married into a family so powerful that he took his wife's name. And what of Lou, Jo's friend and lover. And the Jackal, also a lover. This is dark and graphic but also intriguing. I was a bit confused initially as to how Jo got into this mess, why the Jackal, and so on. She's a very troubled woman and not to judge or anything but the concept of a cup half filled with gin and half with coffee is just gross (to each their own, I suppose). Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. It's a page turner.

(The following review will appear at CriminalElement.com the week of release.)

Jo is a professional blackmailer. She studies, entraps, and extorts the richest and most powerful men of Los Angeles: Hollywood directors, aspiring politicians, lecherous actors. It’s a very lucrative job — or, it would be, if she wasn’t still paying off a monstrous debt to her mysterious boss, the Lady Upstairs.

But despite the frequently questionable morality of her work, and that debt that hangs so heavily over her head, Jo still finds satisfaction in knowing she has a hand in bringing low awful men who have always escaped punishment before. And, through it all, she has her devoted friendship with coworker Lou to keep her going.

And now Jo is inches away from freedom. One last job will wipe her slate clean with the Lady Upstairs. A new, brighter chapter awaits on her horizon…


As I waited, I piled my fleshless lime rinds into dimpled green pyramids. Keeping the trash to mark time, how many drinks I’d had, keeping my fingers busy so I wouldn’t start doing algebra about Klein’s net work on the bar top. Three hundred twenty-six million meant he’d pay how much for photographs of his nasty predilections? What about for a video? Six blockbusters scheduled to come out in the next year meant a reputation was worth how much exactly? Fifty grand? More? My 20 percent of fifty grand would just about do it.
Calm down, I told myself. In less than an hour, you’ll have the prints. And this time tomorrow, or the day after, say, you’ll have what you owe for the Lady Upstairs.


Until everything goes sideways. With a dead target on her hands and the LAPD on her heels, Jo suddenly finds her last chance for freedom slipping through her fingers. She’ll have to think fast and come up with several thousand dollars in a hurry, or else both she and Lou may lose everything.

An obvious solution presents itself: take down the city’s wealthiest mayoral candidate. Run a high-stakes con off the books, and pocket the full payday.

While unmasking the Lady Upstairs, too. Jo thinks it’s time she knows just who she’s been working for — and maybe it’s time the police know, too.

The Lady Upstairs is Sutton’s debut, and she’s come out swinging for the ropes. This is a gritty, boozy, neon-drenched neo-noir sure to appeal to fans of L.A. Confidential and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, rich with that seedy artificiality Hollywood is so well known for.


When I’d first moved to Los Angeles, I’d hated everything about the city, the traffic, the people. Everything. Los Angeles was an endless appetite, ninety-two smaller cities stapled together and bulldozing everything in its path. Even with my doors locked tight, I could feel the city trying to make its way in — the Santa Anas sweeping through freshly soldered seams, pale afternoon light spilling through blinds zipped shut, the sight of beautiful people on every corner turning you inside out against yourself. In the beginning, living in Los Angeles was like having a constant spotlight shining on you and at the same time like being invisible.
It had taken Lou, and the Lady, and even Jackal, for me to understand that the best part of the city was its artifice. Use the spotlight as a weapon. Wear the con like a coat.
That’s when Los Angeles became my city.


Nobody is innocent here. Not Jo, not Lou, not the girls they train to con the marks. The cops are dirty, love is always brutal, and everyone has a price and a value — if they don’t, they’re easily discarded. In true noir fashion, there are no shades of gray at play here, only varying levels of black.

Yet we connect with Jo, a wronged woman who began her slippery slide out of pure necessity and desperation. Sutton does a marvelous job of making us root for her very broken narrator, a sharp, queer woman with a self-destructive thirst and an axe to grind.

Part of that is due to the comparative rarity of having a complex female voice as our guide through the story’s bloody underworld. Too often, noir is a male domain of grizzled P.I.’s, manipulated saps, and dirty cops. The women are either femme fatales or damsels in need of rescue, and almost never the primary character.

And while Jo is most certainly a femme fatale, she’s also the lead of her own story. She’s certainly not a true crusader — she cons and blackmails for money above all else, and achieves her ends by putting other women into dangerous situations — but there’s a nugget of feminist justice in what she does. “Make him pay,” she tells one of her girls; it’s one of her most treasured mantras. Jo and Lou are manipulating an already oppressive system, flipping the script and exploiting men’s natures, vices, and pride for their own benefit.


Lou had asked me once, early, whether I thought what we did was evil. Testing me, maybe, when I was green and tender-fresh. “Not evil,” I’d said, surprising myself by how much I meant it. “Everything is currency.” And it was true: everything was currency of a sort. A smile applied at the right time like a crowbar — that was currency, a kind word the same. My body was mine to spend as I wanted. It wasn’t evil to not have good intentions with sex. I didn’t owe men pure motives. It wasn’t kind, what we were doing, it might not have even been right, but it wasn’t evil. Not then.
And some part of me still believed it. We’d done evil things. But that didn’t mean the game was flawed from the ground up. Not when men who shot their wives in the face got to plaster their names all over the city, not when men’s potential was considered more important than women’s bodies, not when the game was so rigged against us.


From the first page, The Lady Upstairs pulses with menace and tension. Vice and violence permeates everything. This is a story about bad people doing bad things, a noir that would absolutely not pass the Hays Code. If you’re looking for honorable heroes or a soul-uplifting plot, look elsewhere.

But for those craving some danger and depravity, Sutton has delivered a helluva ride through Los Angeles’ dark underbelly. You’ll smell the money and gin; when you surface for air, don’t be surprised if you feel more than a little hungover. Like all the best noirs, this is a story that will cling like cigarette smoke long after you put it down.