Suzanne Rindell
Berkley/Penguin
May, 2014
Idgie Says:
This novel is filled with educated, smartly written wordplay that tells the story without coming across as being superior. Completely refreshing.
Rose is a very structured, law abiding creature of habit. She follows the rules, does her job well and keeps to herself. Then Prohibition starts growing the number of arrests at the police station and they hire another Typist. Rose falls under a spell. She becomes obsessed and starts making questionable choices. These choices lead to some startling and unexpected ramifications that gives this novel an edge the entire way through.
I highly recommend.
Book Description:
Rose Baker seals men's fates. With a few strokes of the keys that sit before her, she can send a person away for life in prison. A typist in a New York City Police Department precinct, Rose is like a high priestess. Confessions are her job. It is 1923, and while she may hear every detail about shootings, knifings, and murders, as soon as she leaves the interrogation room she is once again the weaker sex, best suited for filing and making coffee.
This is a new era for women, and New York is a confusing place for Rose. Gone are the Victorian standards of what is acceptable. All around her women bob their hair, they smoke, they go to speakeasies. Yet prudish Rose is stuck in the fading light of yesteryear, searching for the nurturing companionship that eluded her childhood. When glamorous Odalie, a new girl, joins the typing pool, despite her best intentions Rose falls under Odalie's spell. As the two women navigate between the sparkling underworld of speakeasies by night and their work at the station by day, Rose is drawn fully into Odalie's high-stakes world. And soon her fascination with Odalie turns into an obsession from which she may never recover.
Click HERE to read an excerpt.