Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Don’t Die Under The Apple Tree-Amy Patricia Meade

Don’t Die Under The Apple Tree


Amy Patricia Meade

Kensington, May 1 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780758267580



During World War II, thirtyish Mrs. Rosie O'Doyle Keefe works as a riveter at the Pushey Shipyard in Brooklyn. The work is demanding especially on petite Rosie. The men despise women doing physical labor at their shipyard as they believe the females could never do a man’s job and will drive down wages. Rosie gets into an altercation with heater Hansen. Foreman Finch fires Rosie as he has a dozens of women ready to replace her while he has no one to match Hansen’s skills. She pleads with him as she cares for her widow sister and baby niece. He agrees to keep her on board if she meets his personal job requirement. She escapes his grab, but is unemployed.



After she leaves, someone kills Finch. Police lieutenant Jack Riordan investigates the homicide in which his supervisor gives him five days to make an arrest. Rosie, knowing she is the prime suspect, also makes inquiries and soon learns many of the seventy or so employees had strong reasons to kill Finch.



As Marjorie McClelland (see Black Moonlight) takes a respite, Amy Patricia Meade introduces readers to her new Rosie the Riveter series. The storyline takes readers back to WWII in New York City where male chauvinism rules yet women prove to be an equal partner in the greatest generation as they perform a "men only" job; setting the stage for their daughters to "come a long way baby" by breaking down glass barriers. Rosie is a great protagonist and the whodunit cleverly devised. However, it is 1940s mostly Brooklyn that come incredibly alive as armchair warriors will believe they have traveled back to where the women’s equal rights movement took hold in society.



Harriet Klausner

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