She can already hear the wedding bells ringing when Reed Dougherty, a Pinkerton detective, spoils her nuptial plans. It looks like her dreams are coming true when she makes friends with two young women from Chicago's high society and is introduced to a financially secure young man. Taking what she learns there, she uses her great beauty and feminine charms to encourage her gentlemen to bestow gifts upon her. But Chicago in the late 1800s is not welcoming to a young woman with no skills and she soon finds herself a courtesan in the city's most infamous bordello. May's father dies fairly early in her life and she decides to set out for Chicago in the hopes of earning enough money to support her family. Sandwiched in between scenes from the courtroom drama, May tells us the story of her life-all the adventures that led up to her appearance in court in January 1917.
The story opens with May settling in for a trial accusing her of extortion-bilking her friend Miss Frank Gray Shaver out of her inheritance. Parlor Games by Maryka Biaggio is a sweeping piece of historical fiction based on real-life adventuress, May Dugas aka the Baroness May de Vries (and various aliases).
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