(5/15/2016)
In this second book about Constance Kopp, following Girl Waits With Gun, we again are greeted with not only Constance, but her sisters, Norma and Fleurette, and the rugged Sheriff Robert Heath - Constance's boss. Constance has been unofficially named as the first female deputy sheriff of Hackensack, Bergen County New Jersey.
Constance inadvertently lets a criminal, Dr Herman Von Matthesius, escape from his hospital room during a power outage. Knowing that Sheriff Heath can be jailed for losing a prisoner, Constance is determined to recapture this man, single-handedly if need be - no holds barred.
This character, Constance Kopp, is based on a real person, who held newspaper headlines in 1912. Although the Kopp Sisters novels are fiction, they are based on the real first female sheriff in New Jersey. Many facts are taken from the newspapers printed at that time.
The character development is good. The teasing, abuse and ignorance of the male population, especially the male deputies of that time, is very well portrayed. The antics of Constance may be a bit frivolous at times, but very entertaining. That is not to say that Constance has it easy, or that she does not have her own difficult secrets, or a great responsibility in being the first woman in the deputy sheriffs office. She is defiantly a woman ahead of her time and doing her best to lay the road for those that follow her, both in the field of law enforcement and women's rights.