Krow's evocative debut novel (after the collection I'm Fine, but You Appear to Be Sinking) follows three misfits who prosper in the aftermath of a devastating fire in 1889 Spokane Falls, just before Washington gains statehood. Barton Heydale, 29, is the manager of the only bank within 100 miles; feeling lonesome and disliked, he's considering ending his life when he sees the fire at Wolfe's Hotel. In the chaotic aftermath, he enacts a plan to steal from the bank. He later runs into Roslyn Beck, a sex worker he'd engaged at Wolfe's on the day of the fire, and invites her to stay with him. Barton plans to escape town with the money and Roslyn, but she and the money disappear. Then Quake Auchenbaucher arrives, identifying himself as a federal arson inspector to the police, who have taken Barton into custody on charges of usury and counterfeiting. Quake, a savvy con man, pins the fire on Barton and convinces the officers all the bank's money is fake, and that he must transport it to the Treasury. After a series of twists, the three outlaws all converge. Krow pulls off a convincing last gasp of the Wild West with an appealing array of charlatans and schemers. The prose is marvelous, and Krow shrewdly shows via Barton, who pretends to be a "man in a fine, if not enviable state," how the riskiest con is against the self. Readers will be captivated. Agent: Sarah Bedingfield, Levine Greenberg Literary. (July)

Spokane Falls, 1889. Barton Heydale, disillusioned banker, intends to commit suicide, but a devastating fire offers a different way out. Barton steals from his bank, envisioning life as the big man he always felt destined to be with his lady-love, drunken prostitute Roslyn, by his side. Roslyn is much more than she seems, and she has other plans. To complicate matters, Quake Auchenbaucher arrives, presenting himself as a federal arson inspector. The Washington Territory is a perfect setting for the trio's shenanigans as it's on the cusp of statehood, transitioning from frontier to something more regulated, if not quite civilized. Auchenbaucher perceives "a confusion to the place and he was glad for it. He thought it would serve him well." Everyone here is on the take. First-time novelist Krow is a keen observer and raconteur of human nature; her characters spring forth fully formed from a few whimsical sentences. The prevailing tone is one of delicious dark humor, along with a touch of the absurd and a dose of spiritualism. The result is a literary conflagration that absorbs down to its cooling embers.

In 1889, a fire in Spokane Falls, a thriving town in the territory of Washington, provides opportunities for two unscrupulous men and one ethically ambivalent woman. On the verge of statehood--which, in the thoughts of one character, will lessen the desperation that makes a citizenry susceptible to fraud--Washington Territory is ripe for exploitation by three drifters who, in this extremely pre-regulation universe, can endlessly reinvent themselves. Barton Heydale, a banker who came to Spokane Falls to escape a dismissive father in Portland, embezzles to get even with the townsfolk, who dismiss him even more. Roslyn Beck, a prostitute Barton visits regularly, is rescued by him after the catastrophic fire which begins in the hotel where she lives and works. However, she doesn't see it as rescue once she sobers up from the absinthelike thrall of the hooch known as "Mud Drink." Faux fire investigator Quake Auchenbaucher (an alias earned when he masqueraded as a seismologist) engineers Barton's downfall and also attempts, with more honorable intentions, to rescue Roslyn, who is having none of that, either. Roslyn is not so much the protagonist as the tonal center of a book whose key is unclear. She is "a certain kind of woman." A witch? A clairvoyant? A seeker? Or just aware that she is always second-guessing herself when far less talented men are not? The author's main preoccupation is not with people but with motifs and issues: What is consent? Can good intentions redeem? Is theft in aid of good works moral? The prose is incantatory. Locations veer from the frontier precursor of Spokane, which Krow portrays with the sure hand of a local, to Portland and San Francisco. A prologue and unrelated "interludes" underscore the novel's themes, superfluously it seems. The characters weigh their options, internally and in dialogue--in some sections just dialogue, like a script without stage directions--but seem to care very little about outcomes. Outcomes, the reader gathers, aren't really the point. A novel that makes peace with uncertainty. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.