A Pair of Aces by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray is a dual-narrative historical novel that reimagines one of the most consequential organized-crime prosecutions in American history through the eyes of two women who were written out of its popular memory. The book braids the parallel lives of Eunice Hunton Carter, the Black prosecutor whose insight cracks the case against organized crime boss Lucky Luciano, and Polly Adler, the Jewish immigrant whose brothels sit at the center of the syndicate that Eunice is determined to dismantle. Their chapters alternate across the 1920s and 1930s, tracing two ambitious women navigating a New York that offers them power only at its margins before converging in an alliance during the 1936 prosecution. The novel addresses themes of Subverting Patriarchal Power With Female Alliances, The Personal Cost of Ambition, and Systemic Exploitation in the Sex-Work Industry, inviting readers to reconsider whose intelligence, courage, and compromise made the real-life landmark conviction possible.

This guide refers to the 2026 Berkley hardcover edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, graphic violence, rape, physical abuse, emotional abuse, pregnancy termination, racism, gender discrimination, addiction, substance use, and cursing.

Plot Summary

When the novel opens in April 1935, the two protagonists are on wildly divergent trajectories. Eunice Hunton Carter, the only Black woman on Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey's team of assistant district attorneys, is balancing marriage, motherhood, and the expectations of a striving Black professional class. Polly Adler, a Russian Jewish immigrant scarred by displacement and assault, has worked her way up from garment-shop piecework to running a discreet, fashionable brothel patronized by writers, gangsters, and politicians. Eunice's Harlem Renaissance milieu and Polly's speakeasy demimonde are separate worlds, but each woman must strike compromises to be taken seriously in spaces built for men. Eunice's career places a severe strain on her marriage to Lisle Carter, an accomplished dentist who fears that mobsters will target their family. Meanwhile, Polly is forced to allow the notorious mobster Dutch Schultz to use her brothel as his base of operations to prevent him from attacking her and her girls.

The co-protagonists meet after Polly is arrested in a raid on a party attended by Schultz. Eunice knows of Polly through her work with the Women's Court, where she prosecutes the streetwalkers and madams Dewey deems too minor to matter. Eunice discovers that organized criminals are increasingly involved in running the city's sex-work rackets, and she hopes that Polly can offer her vital information. However, Polly refuses to speak with her, convinced that the mob will kill her if she's suspected of being an informant.

As the 1930s advance, both women's lives are impacted by the consolidation of organized crime under Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Luciano kills Schultz for plotting to murder Dewey, a crime that would lead law enforcement to crack down on mob violence. He then consolidates the city's sex-work rackets into a syndicate called the "Combination," which Polly is forced to join.

The narrative reaches a turning point when one of Luciano's associates demands that one of Polly's girls, a young woman named Virginia, work for him. When the madam tries to intervene, Luciano beats her unconscious. Eunice later finds Virginia and helps her escape even though this costs her a valuable opportunity to gather evidence against Luciano, allowing Virginia to start a new life.

Determined to fight back against Luciano and protect her girls, Polly arranges a secret meeting with Eunice and becomes her informant. The madam provides the district attorney with the names of Luciano's associates and details on the inner workings of the Combination. Using this information, Eunice organizes the simultaneous police raid of 80 brothels with the goal of convincing the sex workers and madams to testify against Luciano. The attorney honors her deal with Polly by giving her time to flee with her employees, ensuring that none of them are arrested in the raid.

After the raid, Polly goes on the run and struggles to support her employees. Upon her return to New York, she discovers that her mother, whom she hasn't seen since she was 12, has immigrated from Russia. Polly has supported her parents for years, telling them that she makes her money managing a factory. Her parents discover that she's a madam when they see a newspaper article about the police raid and Luciano's trial, and her father disowns her. Polly defends herself by reminding him of how he exploited and abandoned her by sending her to the United States alone and by expecting her to support her family since she was a young girl.

Meanwhile, Dewey tries to prevent Eunice from being part of the trial team even though her work is pivotal to the case, alleging that her race would be a "distraction" to the jury. However, she convinces him to let her on the team by using evidence provided by Polly. Eunice eventually persuades some of the arrested madams and sex workers to testify, but they aren't considered credible witnesses due to the social stigma against their profession. To bolster the prosecution, Polly uses her connections at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel to introduce Eunice to the hotel staff who have been attending to Luciano, who has been living there for months under an alias.

The hotel staff's testimony proves vital to convincing the jury of the mobster's guilt, and the jury finds him guilty on 61 counts of compulsory sex work. His subsequent conviction is an achievement owed to both Eunice's and Polly's efforts, and the two share a silent moment of victory. At the end of the story, Lisle gains a new appreciation for the importance of Eunice's work, and Polly resolves to take control over her narrative by writing a memoir.