Review by Booklist Review
Rose, a police precinct typist in Prohibition New York, has seen many things. As the recorder of confessions and transgressions of all sorts, she considers herself to be an astute judge of character. So when Odalie Lazare, a new typist, arrives in the office, Rose is intrigued by her beauty, charm, and seeming wealth. Rose becomes infatuated with Odalie, who is not what she appears to be, as Odalie pulls Rose into a world filled with speakeasies, bootleggers, and elite estate parties. With hints toward The Great Gatsby, Rindell's novel aspires to re-create Prohibition-era New York City, both its opulence and its squalid underbelly. She captures it quite well, while at the same time spinning a delicate and suspenseful narrative about false friendship, obsession, and life for single women in New York during Prohibition.--Paulson, Heather Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Rose Baker is inexperienced and unworldly. She takes and types criminal confessions of every sordid kind for a New York City police precinct, but her life is otherwise unremarkable. Due to the increase of crime resulting from prohibition (the book is set in 1923), a new typist is hired to help with the workload, and Rose is intrigued. Odalie is beautiful, provocative, and more than a little unscrupulous. Rose gets swept into Odalie's world of fashion trends and speakeasies, and finds it exhilarating. As she relates her growing involvement with Odalie, Rose becomes as uncertain of Odalie's motives as she is infatuated. Gretchen Mol is effective in narrating Rindell's novel. She sounds young, reserved, and thoughtful. And the voices Mol-who turns in an earnest and capable performance-lends the other characters are appropriate. An Amy Einhorn/Putnam hardcover. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In this crisp psychological thriller, debut novelist Rindell transports listeners to 1920s New York City during the height of Prohibition. Rose, a stenographer at a Lower East Side police department, excels at her job, taking great pride in her typing skills and work ethic. The conservative, somewhat prudish Rose, who was raised at a Catholic orphanage, becomes fascinated with the new typist, the glamorous Odalie, a charismatic woman with stylish clothes and bobbed hair who would have been right at home at one of Gatsby's parties. As Rose and Odalie strike up a friendship and venture into the dangerous underworld of the speakeasies, Rose struggles to reconcile her job with her new social life. Gretchen Mol, who appears on HBO's 1920s-set series Boardwalk Empire, delivers the perfect pacing and tone for this menacing thriller. VERDICT Highly recommended for all suspense fans. ["Fans of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley are sure to love Rindell's debut novel, which parallels Ripley in its examination of our fascination with wealth and the potential consequences of keeping the wrong company," read the review of the Putnam hc, LJ Xpress Reviews, 5/3/13.-Ed.]-Beth -Farrell, Cleveland State Univ. Law Lib. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Take a dollop of Alfred Hitchcock, a dollop of Patricia Highsmith, throw in some Great Gatsby flourishes, and the result is Rindell's debut, a pitch-black comedy about a police stenographer accused of murder in 1920s Manhattan. Typing criminals' confessions, Rose admires the precinct's conservative, mustachioed middle-aged sergeant while she is critical of his superior, the lieutenant detective Frank, who is closer to her in age and a clean-shaven dandy in his white spats. An orphan raised by nuns, Rose lives in a boardinghouse and leads a prim spinster life far removed from the flappers and increasingly liberated women of the "Roaring Twenties." She seems destined to a life of routine solitude until a new typist is hired. Odalie wears her hair bobbed, dresses with panache and lives in a posh hotel. Rose voices disapproval at first, but she is clearly drawn to Odalie, even obsessed with her. When Odalie invites her to share her hotel rooms, Rose moves right in. Soon, Rose is accompanying Odalie on her adventures, which include bootlegging, among other vices. Sometimes Rose borrows Odalie's clothes, sometimes she runs errands for Odalie. But who is Odalie? Where does her money come from? And if she has money, why does she work as a police stenographer? At a house party on Long Island, a young man from Newport thinks he recognizes Odalie as the debutante once engaged to his cousin, but she denies knowing him. By the time he turns up dead, Rose has been sucked into Odalie's world so deeply that their identities have merged. Who is using whom? Recalling her recent life, revealing only what she wants to reveal in bits and pieces, Rose begins her narration archly with off-putting curlicues she gradually discards. She is tart, judgmental, self-righteous and self-justifying. She is also viciously astute. Whether she's telling the truth is another matter. A deliciously addictive, cinematically influenced page-turner, both comic and provocative, about the nature of guilt and innocence within the context of social class in a rapidly changing culture.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
