Rough Trade: A Novel [Paperback]

Finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Novel
Named a Best Crime Novel of the Year byThe New York Timesand a Best Book of the Year byThe New YorkerandAutostraddle

Alma Rosales is back and trouble is hot on her heels in this thrilling, queer historical novel from the critically acclaimed author ofThe Best Bad Things.

Washington Territory, 1888. With contacts on the docks and in the railroad and a buyers market funneling product their way, ex-detective Alma Rosales and her opium-smuggling crew are making a fortune. They spend their days moving crates and their nights at the Monte Carlo, the center of Tacomas queer scene, where skirts and trousers dont signify and everyones free to suit themselves. And Alma, who is living as a hardscrabble stevedore called Jack Camp, knows this most of all.

When two local men end up dead, all signs point to the opium trade. A botched effort to disappear the bodies draws the attention of lawmen, and although Alma scrambles to keep them away from her operation, shes distracted by the surprise appearance of Bess Spenceran ex-Pinkerton agent and Almas first loveafter years of silence. Then a handsome young stranger, Ben Vel?squez, rolls into town and falls into an affair with one of Almas crewmen. When Ben starts asking questions about opium, Alma begins to suspect she has welcomed a spy into her inner circle, and shes forced to consider how far shell go to protect her trade.

Katrina Carrasco plunges readers into the vivid, rough-and-tumble world of the late-1800s Pacific Northwest in this genre and gender-blurring novel.Rough Tradefollows Carrascos critically acclaimed debut,The Best Bad Things, and reimagines queer communities, the turbulent early days of modern media and medicine, and the pleasuresand priceof satisfying desire.