Rules of Civility

On New Year’s Eve in 1937, legal secretary Katey Kontent and her roommate Eve Ross meet a wealthy banker named Tinker Grey in a Greenwich Village jazz hole. This chance encounter thrusts Katey into the upper echelons of Manhattan society during the final years of the Great Depression. As Eve stakes a claim on Tinker through a sudden accident, Katey navigates a social landscape of penthouse parties, high-stakes publishing offices, and elite social clubs. She relies on her sharp wit and George Washington’s titular rules of etiquette to climb the class ladder while observing the hidden costs of reinvention and the fragility of wealth.

This novel serves readers interested in the specific social hierarchies of pre-war New York and the technical mechanics of class mobility. It appeals to those who value precise dialogue and period-accurate descriptions of urban architecture and 1930s nightlife. Readers finish the book with a clear understanding of how accidental choices shape a person’s long-term trajectory. It provides a detailed character study of how an individual maintains intellectual integrity while operating within a system designed for the inherited rich.