This
is the author’s second novel. Once again we are with Constance
Kopp, the Sheriff Heath and the Deputies of Bergen County, and of
course, Constance’s sisters, Norma and Fleurette. Set in the early
twentieth century and based on real characters, these are novels as
much about feminism and women’s struggle for equality as they are
crime stories.
Lady
Cop Makes Trouble, continues on after the events of the author’s
previous work, Girl Waits With Gun. Constance is now a member of
Sheriff Heath’s staff, though she is yet to be fully inducted as a
Deputy. There’s trouble with that in that the authorities are wary
of making a woman a deputy and so Sheriff Heath persuades Constance
to temporarily take on the role of Woman’s Matron in the Women’s
Jail, where she acts as custodian and cares for their needs. All the
while he promises to sort things out and get her her Deputy’s
badge.
Things
take a turn for the worse when a German-speaking conman, Rev. Dr.
Baron Herman Albert von Matthesius is arrested. He’s a slippery,
wily, eel of a character and soon escapes, unfortunately when
Constance is temporarily watching over him. Now it looks like she
will never be made deputy. More worryingly, Sheriff Heath might even
be jailed for allowing a prisoner to escape from his jail. So off
Constance goes, galavanting around New York and New Jersey in a quest
to redeem herself, save Sheriff Heath from gaol, and capture their
runaway fugitive.
As
with the previous book, Lady Cop Makes Trouble is kind of a cosy
mystery. But that does the book a disservice. While this isn’t noir
or gritty crime thriller of the sort that, say, James Ellroy might
produce, it doesn’t shy away from the unpalatability of life at the
time. Re. von Matthesius was running a scam where he took rich
patients into a sanitarium and made them sick in order to extract
more money out of their relatives. While nothing is ever spelt out,
there’s the unmistakable hint of sexual abuse about the affair.
Similarly, Constance comes across the poverty of the time, one of her
potential witnesses being a young boy, who’s mother is ridden with
cancer from a life working in a tannery. But it’s the subtle yet
pernicious sexism with which Constance has to constantly battle which
really marks this out as different from other novels. Constance even
meets it when conversing with other women and it’s difficult not to
pull one’s hair out in frustration at the obstinance women had to
face.
This
is a great read, a cosy novel for snuggling up with, but one with
bite. Highly recommended.
5
stars
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