Madame Mystique is a performer extraordinaire, come to work her scandalous magic at the glittering 1933 Chicago World’s Fair.
Of African-American and Sicilian heritage, Mystique – aka Rosa Mancuso – and her fellow performers move on the margins. Her ambiguous status serves a hidden vendetta: she awaits the arrival of Paolo Amanta, the dashing pilot sent by Mussolini to dazzle spectators with a phenomenal air show.
Back in Sicily, Paolo’s band of young Fascists had murdered her relatives as the old Mafia families were swept from their palazzi with unsparing brutality.
Rosa is fixed on revenge.
Then her estranged cousin, Mina, comes to the Fair, begging her help to face down their American family.
Bu who decides who we are and where we belong?
Sinners of Starlight City by Anika Scott is published on 20 July, 2023.
Anika has written about Mussolini’s Italian pilots and the World’s Fair for Historia.
