Lacks context and has a bad narrator

This book has a fascinating subject matter, but fails to deliver in several significant respects. Its biggest problems are poor narration, bad writing and lack of context. The first several chapters read like a dry summary of archival research. This might be academically useful, but it is extremely dull listening. There are only so many times you can listen to a list of girls registered as employees for such and such a madam, before you just have to throw up your hands in frustration. The breathless narration doesn't help either, and these chapters emerge as an odd jumble of facts with little apparent connection or meaning. While the later chapters pick up in interest - the discussion of the town of Ramona is particularly interesting, the book never shakes its larger problems.

Mackell, is extremely detailed, but doesn't fit those details into a coherent narrative. Here are a couple examples to illustrate what I mean:
1. Mackell talks about prostitutes following mining boom towns, but she never gives an overview of the state's economy.
2. Several of the stories she tells discusses laudanum, but she does not talk about how opiate used in context.
3. Her most interesting chapters follow the the conflict between the red light districts and groups like the Women's Christian Temperance Union, but she doesn't write about these groups in their own right.

Ultimately, I gave this book 2 stars rather than one or zero, because many of the stories were interesting and humanizing and because the description of the decline of the red light districts was sadly compelling.

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