Books Set in North America; Maine, United States

The Frozen River,  by Ariel Lawhon (2023)

Read: December 22, 2024

5 Stars

Books Set in North America, United States, New York, New York

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress, by Ariel Lawhon (2014)

 

In August 1930, Judge Joseph Crater disappeared off the streets of New York City.  His disappearance remains an unsolved mystery to this day.

 

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress is a fictionalized retelling of his disappearance and offers a possible explanation to account for what happened to him.  While the Carters were vacationing in their Maine summer cottage, the Judge received a phone call and told his wife that he must return to the City immediately.  She never saw him again.

 

New York in the 1920s and 30s, was during the time of the Tammany Hall political scandal.  Political positions were procured through bribes and corruption.  Carter had recently gotten a position on the State Supreme Court through these channels.  He frequented a speak-easy owned by a known gangster and was fond of Broadway theater and showgirls.  As depicted in this novel, the showgirls got their jobs through giving themselves to the men operating the theaters, often gangsters.  (Not unlike the pressure used by some film producers in Hollywood).

 

Sally Lou Ritz, known as Ritzi, was one such showgirl, and was the mistress of Carter.  She was one of the last individuals to have seen Judge Carter.  She testified that she had dinner with him at a fancy restaurant in the theater district on the night he disappeared, but claimed she was dating another associate of Carter.

 

Once the maid, Maria, entered the Carter’s Manhattan apartment to clean, thinking that the Carters were in Maine, and walked in on the Judge and Ritzi.  Thus, further complicating her with the Judge’s disappearance and Stella, his wife.  The author suggests that the three women conspired to have Carter killed.

 

There are many twists and turns in this riveting tale.  At the time, it was quite a sensational story and was in all the newspapers.  At the end of this novel, the author provides a brief summary of the characters, most of whom were real people and many of the events in the book actually happened.  The author does indicate where she used poetic license.

 

This was a fast read and very entertaining.

 

Read:  June 30, 2021

 

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe; France

Code Name Hélène, by Ariel Lawhon (2020)

Code Name Hélène is a biographical novel about Nancy Grace Augusta Wake (1912 ~ 2011), the Australian woman who joined the French Resistance and later became a Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II.

 

She left her native country and landed in Paris in 1936, where she bluffed her way into becoming a freelance journalist for Hearst.  While in Paris, she met the wealthy French industrialist Henri Fiocca.  She played hard to get, but ultimately, they married and moved to Marseille, where Henri’s business was headquartered.

 

In 1940, Nancy convinced her husband to purchase her a truck that she used as an ambulance to transport wounded soldiers.  Soon, she found herself in the French Resistance.  She had a strong personality and became one of its lone female leaders.  She acquired many code names, including the titled Hélène, as well as a The White Mouse, the name the Nazi’s gave her.  During the War, she helped smuggle Jews out of France into Spain, she fought the Germans occupying France, and she spied for Britain.

 

This novel reads like a suspense novel.  It is not told chronologically, so it is important to note the dates at the heading of each chapter.  The story unfolds in such a remarkable manner.  In the author’s afterward, we learn that most of the events and characters in the book are real and actually happened.  I found I couldn’t put this book down.

Read: June 28, 2021

5 Stars