Prohibition is in effect in New York
City and one precinct has the dubious honor of cracking down on the local
speakeasies. Rose is a typist at that
precinct, recording interrogations and confessions. An orphan, who was given preferential
treatment by the nuns because of her pleasant and trustworthy nature, she takes
her work very seriously but longs for more in her life. When Odalie, the new typist walks into the
precinct, “more” suddenly enters Rose’s life.
This is the story of how much the
people around you can transform who you are.
Rose starts the book as one character and we see her change into a very
different person. Odalie is a bit of a
mystery – her stories are fantastic but conflicting. Rose sees that as just another wonderful
thing about her new best friend. Rose
and Odalie’s friendship is heading towards disaster, a disaster that is
foreshadowed throughout the book, which makes you want to read faster and
faster to see what happens next.
I put both the audiobook and print copy on hold and they came in on the same day. So I decided to alternate between reading and listening and both were equally wonderful experiences. Gretchen Mol reads the book and you can just picture her character from Boardwalk Empire as Odalie. Only problem with the audio is that I can read faster than I can listen so I found myself reading every chance I could. Knowing that something horrible was going to happen just made the story that much more compelling.
