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 on the lower east side, Rose is like a high
priestess. Confessions are her job. The criminals admit to their
transgressions, and Rose records their crimes. 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.
It is a new era for women, and New York City is a confusing time for
Rose. Gone are the Victorian standards of what is acceptable. All around
her women bob their hair short like men, they smoke, they go to
speakeasies. But prudish Rose is stuck in the fading light of
yesteryear, searching for the nurturing companionship that eluded her
childhood and clinging to the Victorian ideal of sisterhood.
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 her fascination with Odalie turns into an obsession
from which she may never recover.
I fell in love with this book last spring when I read it. I was eager to share the news of the paperback release. I'd also hoped to include an interview with author Suzanne Rindell, but our meeting didn't happen last week, flight problems kept her out of Florida. I've been following some discussions with Suzanne, one recently with Goodreads still has readers asking about the mysterious ending to The Other Typist. I admire how Susanne has kept true to herself about the curious way she ended Rose's story. Click the link above to read the discussion.
Please take a look back at my review, and now with a great paperback price this book should be even more enticing.
I'm hoping that now that this gem is out on paperback, it will attract an entirely new audience. It is just a killer story!
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