Westside by W.M. Akers

WESTSIDE is a fantastic dose of the world of Neil Gaiman, with a pinch of GANGS OF NEW YORK, a dollop of Charles Dicken's pickpocketing street urchins, and the tough cops and New York society of Caleb Carr. In this alternative history of Prohibition New York, the city is split in two by a guarded fence but that doesn't deter a quirky private detective from solving her "tiny mystery" cases on both the East and Westside. Very few souls venture into the Westside but that is where Gilda feels most at home even though she is as comfortable in her mother's Eastside society as she is with her father's rough beat cops and the low lives, bootleggers and street gangs of the Westside. While solving the tiny mystery of a missing glove she stumbles into something much darker and the middle of an all-out war for control of both sides of New York. The many characters, similar yet invented New York and the rapid pace of the various storylines can be confusing but Gilda's clever wit and street charm will quickly win you over.