This
is a delightful Christian historical romance. Jennifer is one of the
first female detectives for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
While she has had some great adventures catching big named villains,
this assignment may be her hardest yet. She has to pose as a woman of
ill repute in a frontier town. She is to befriend Rose, another woman
in the bordello who is supposed to have information about the
identify of the Gunnysack Bandit. But shortly after Jennifer arrives,
Rose is killed. Then her life becomes even more complicated as she
crosses paths with Tom, ex-Texas Ranger now looking for his brother's
killer. His brother had been planning to rescue and marry Rose and
Tom had planned to talk to Rose too. Jennifer must keep her true
identity secret as she continues her assignment and avoids being
distracted by the handsome Tom.
I
really liked this novel. The idea of a virtuous woman posing as one
of ill repute is a touchy one but Brownley pulls it off. Jennifer
manages to retain her virtue while continuing on the case.
There
are some thought provoking moral issues in the book. Each of the
women in the bordello has a story and the reasons they have come to
this place of last resort will tug at heart strings. There are
righteous women from the local church who go about dealing with these
women all wrong – except for one. There is the issue of the men who
visit the house too. When Jennifer sees men of good standing in the
town frequent the place, it sours her toward men in general. She is
not convinced there are any men who can be trusted to be faithful to
their wives.
Within
these serious issues Brownley has included some humor. When the women
in the house become a shoe tossing brigade, I had to laugh.
I
was impressed with the way Brownley concluded the book. The issue of
the women of ill repute ends well and somewhat realistically.
In
the author's note at the end of the book we find that there was an
initial woman Pinkerton detective, working from 1856 to her death in
1868. She was put in charge of the Female Detective Bureau in 1860.
(This novel takes place in 1883.) Pinkerton was way ahead of his time
since women were not allowed on any police force until 1890.
There
is a good discussion guide included so this would make a good book
for reading groups. There are some great moral issues to discuss. I
really enjoyed how Brownley handled those sensitive issues, how the
plot developed, the humor included from time to time, and the
romance. An overall good novel.
Margaret
Brownley is the author of more than twenty novels. You can find out
more at www.margaretbrownley.com.
Shiloh
Run Press, 320 pages.
I
received a complimentary egalley of this novel from the publisher for
the purpose of an independent and honest review.
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