Hot Keys

In 1920s New York City, it’s hard on the streets, but Betty May Dewitt and her best friend, Jack Norval, are determined to make their Tin Pan Alley dreams come true. Fate leads them to a speakeasy called the Trespass Inn, where people play fast and loose and criminals run the show. Betty and Jack are whisked into the glamorous and dangerous world of Prohibition rum-running, but fate has more in store for them than adventure. Romance blooms when a psychic medium’s magic dazzles Betty, and a gangster infuriates and fascinates Jack all at the same time. But danger lurks in every alley, and with the Trespass Inn under attack by rival gangsters, Betty and Jack will have to fight—not only for their hearts and dreams, but for their lives.

R.E. Ward is a lesbian living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with her fiancée, Elizabeth, and their spoiled cat, Zoey. She has always been enamored with 1920s style, though not 1920s values, and wanted to bring a queer narrative to her favorite aesthetic decade. Hot Keys was written during the Covid-19 pandemic and is Rebecca’s first novel.