Henrietta Von Harmon works as a 26 girl at a corner bar on Chicago’s northwest side. It’s 1935, but things still aren’t looking up since the big crash and her father’s subsequent suicide, leaving Henrietta to care for her antagonistic mother and younger siblings. Henrietta is eventually persuaded to take a job as a taxi dancer at a local dance hall—and just when she’s beginning to enjoy herself, … herself, the floor matron turns up dead.
When aloof Inspector Clive Howard appears on the scene, Henrietta agrees to go undercover for him—and is plunged into Chicago’s grittier underworld. Meanwhile, she’s still busy playing mother hen to her younger siblings, as well as to pesky neighborhood boy Stanley, who believes himself in love with her and keeps popping up in the most unlikely places, determined to keep Henrietta safe—even from the Inspector, if need be. Despite his efforts, however, and his penchant for messing up the Inspector’s investigation, the lovely Henrietta and the impenetrable Inspector find themselves drawn to each other in most unsuitable ways.
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Great historical fiction depiction of Chicago’so seaming side. The characters were multidimensional and the plot had some interesting twists.
Well-written, engaging characters, interesting time period.
Innocence lost?
I had the audiobook version of this story and the narrator did a good job of portraying a young girl from the ’30s that was determined to take care of her family and keep her virtue intact. There was a large variety of characters and there were distinctive voices for them that matched what you would expect to hear.
It was interesting to see the world during the Great Depression and to see the types of jobs that were available for a beautiful girl. Then there is a murder at her place of employment and she is recruited by the police to assist with a sting operation. She is able to use her natural skills and actually helps the inspector to get a break in the case. This is great but in the process of the investigation she and the inspector fight falling in love with each other. All of this comes to a head when they are captured.
Overall, a story that you wanted to keep listening to and find out what was going to happen next. I am looking forward to the next story.
Bottom line: Great story to listen to while commuting.
Not the best book out there. The romance part was ridiculous. Two people meet, with a huge age gap, they know each other for 5 minutes and then the leading man proposes?
The characters are unrelatable. I could never get a feel for any of them, especially the two main characters. They are poorly fleshed out and you just can’t get the feeling that you really give a you know what about either of them. There’s basically no world building, nothing to give you a good sense of the place or the time period. And basically no back story on any of them.
I give two stars only because A for effort, right? Keep trying, Ms.Cox. Maybe you’ll get it right sometime.
This book was ok, but didn’t hold my interest all the way to the end. I can’t really put my finger on it, it could have been me. But half way through I put it down and haven’t picked it up again
Avery slow plot. Too much redundancy.
If you are a starry eyed teenaged girl you will probably like this book. I found it too romantically silly. The characters were one dimensional.
It was good idea for story and the characters were fairly well developed. The overall tone of the book was a bit on the YA side for my taste.
Quick read.