Snag Your Copy Dear Miss Kopp (Kopp Sisters, #6) Imagined By Amy Stewart Formatted As Paperback
wonderful book in a charming series I can't recommend highly enough, This is bookand they must be read in order for plot and character development to be fully appreciated, It's a great story based on the lives of three reallife sisters, Constance, Norma, and Fleurette Kopp, This installment unlike the others in the series is told completely in epistolary style as the sisters each do their part in the war effort in, It's as much a history of women's roles in the war as well as a few mystery plotlines involving Constance as well as Norma, The author provides informative historical notes at the end of each book that are just fascinating as well as refers to her web site for actual photographs of the sisters and women and events of the era.
Above all, the characters are so likeable and Stewart's storytelling engaging it's a delight to read, If you love women's history, historical fiction, strong women, mystery, and solid writing, this is for you, The Kopp Sisters lives took different directions after their training at the camp, Constance works for as the only female agent in the Bureau of Investigation, Norma took her pigeons to France where a new commander does not see their value, Fleurette's dreams of show business took off by joining May Ward's tour which takes them to different army training camps, She does not get along well with the show's star, The entire novel unfolds through letters from the sisters to each other and to and from other acquaintances and associates to the sisters, While I feared the epistolary nature might lessen my enjoyment, I found I loved this one more than the preceding installment, Each sister's separate identity emerged as they pursued things within their own range of interests and talents, I received an advance reader's copy through NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review,.Amy Stewart is back with a SIXTH installment of the Miss Kopp series! Girl Waits With Gun was published inand Stewart has given us a sequel every year since.
If you have not read any of the series you won't know that the main characters are based on real people,
Constance Kopp was one of the first lady cops, She had a sister Norma, and 'sister' Fleurette who is really Constance's child, the result of being seduced by a doortodoor Singer salesman when she was a teenager.
Stewart has delved into the newspaper files to resurrect the Kopp girls, fictionalizing freely to fill in the blanks left in their histories,
The series begins in, and this installment brings us to WWI,
Constance has been recruited by Washington, DC to spy on American Germans aiding the enemy, Fleurette is entertaining the stateside troops with a song and dance troupe, And Norma has enlisted to help the Army develop a pigeon messenger program in France where she rooms with a nurse,
Between the three Kopps, readers see the war from many fronts,
The novel is totally epistolary, comprised of the letters between the sisters, their bosses, and family and friends,
As in all the book in the series, a major focus in
on the role of women in society, their contributions and the limitations society places on them.
Norma fights for her work to be taken seriously and solves the problem of missing medical supplies, Fleurette is arrest under The American Plan which locked up women suspected of sexual promiscuity and corrupting the troops, Constance goes undercover as a spy,
The crimes that the Kopps solve are based on actual crimes, One act of sabotage mentioned took place at the Curtiss North Elmwood plant in Buffalo, NY, It was the world's largest airplane factory when it was built, located just down the road from where I grew up, My grandfather was an engineer at a later Curtiss plant operating during WWII,
Fans will enjoy the book, Newbies may want to start with the first in the series, This story told all in letters does not have the same drive as the earlier novels, but once you fall for the Kopps there is no turning back.
We will read to the very end of the series!
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
I have been a fan of the Kopp sisters ever since I read sitelinkGirl Waits with Gun, Amy Stewart started to write about Miss Constance Kopp, first lady cop of the US in, and her sisters, based on welldocumented adventures from their lives, While the first two or three were based very closely on actual events, Stewart had to increasingly invent more fiction, and during World War I, she lost the trace of the sisters almost completely.
Undaunted, she researched the involvement of women in the war, newspaper reports of local crime, spy stories, zealous moral enforcement against girls, and last but not least, the carrier pigeon program of the allies in World War I.
The last one, of course, on account of Normas wholly fictional pigeon obsession,
My favorite part of each book is the “historical notes” section at the end, While all books contain multiple mysteries, the real reveal for me is when Amy tells what part of the story was based on real events and what was invented.
I find it exciting to learn often that things I thought were wholly fictional in fact indeed have happened, My biggest astonishment of this kind was the big family secret from the first book, I was so sure that only happened in novels, In this book, it is the existence of the pigeon program, and that there was a pigeon that saved a lot of soldiers from friendly fire,
Stewart changes the format of the book from the usual third person to epistolary, The story is told in letters, first person from each correspondent, This makes sense as the Kopp sisters are now scattered in all directions, but it takes some getting used to, As the story is a bit slow to start, I might not have stuck around if this was my first book in the series, But I trusted Amy and was rewarded, She served up a nice stew of womens history with the usual charm, The tone of this book, as the others, is on the rather quaint, somewhat charming but naive side, even if it covers tough topics like the war and repression of womens freedoms.
After reading The Expanse for the last week, however, the change towomens perspective, with its reluctance to engage in any shocking language, I required some adjustment to appreciate the charm and mild humor.
The sisters are separated, Norma is in France on the front, setting up the pigeon program, and acquires a room mate in Aggie, a hospital nurse, who fills in the gaps in Normas rather tothepoint communications and describes life in the local French village.
Norma goes on the investigative when Aggie is accused of stealing supplies from the hospital, and they uncover not just the culprit but a spy plot, which Norma handles with iron will and clever finesse.
The pigeon program is not so successful: Norma encounters sexism and plain indifference, but she perseveres, It was interesting to learn how the army was completely unprepared for the housing and training of women, and did not accord them proper ranks,
Constance is involved in counter espionage for the FBI or what became the FBI, Stewart learned from her obituary that she was involved in intelligence work and spun a story around uncovering a German sabotage attempt, Constance involves multiple women in the investigation, including Fleurette, and earns the respect of her superiors, Fleurette, before this, spends much of her time touring with May Ward and entertaining the troups, providing insight into the army camps and the mood of departing soldiers.
She gets caught by an overzealous matron and arrested just for being outside and talking to a soldier, This was apparently common and girls could be imprisoned with no recourse, no trial, and locked up for months or years in institutions,
The book closes with the end of the war and a sense of returning to a completely changed world, While Europe is ravaged, America senses a new beginning, and much of it is for women: while the men were gone, women showed that they could do the mens jobs.
Many are bobbing their hair and getting jobs, wow!
After a slow start, it is an entertaining read for fans of the series, And Amy promises that after the war we pick up the actual lives of the sisters again, I will be definitely picking it up!,