Moving back-and-forth between the last years of World War I and early 1920s to modern-day Windsor area, this book explores life for nurses and soldiers during the war, touches on the Spanish flu epidemic in in the aftermath, and does a decent job of conveying the frenetic energy of the early 1920s.
There’s a good bit of Prohibition history worked into the narrative, including the basic differences between US Prohibition and Canadian, especially Ontario prohibition. I also appreciated the mention of how the War Amputees Association got started.
The modern story takes a while to pick up suspense, but with the point of view character working in a local history museum, it adds some interesting details about how old artifacts, and especially paper ones, are handled to preserve information about where they came from and how they ended up where they were found.
The writing is confident, the characters interesting and suitable for their roles. Jerry, as the soldier turned bootlegger, has a good heart and a good mind, and I found myself rooting for him and Adele, his Bluebird/nursing sister, all the way through.
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I ultimately did. But a few things worked against my eagerness:
1. It was often hard to tell how much time was passing after switching between points of view, and at one place I was very surprised to hear it was only 2 1/2 years after the war ended since from the setting and descriptions of clothing and business, everything felt much more settled into Prohibition, and thus later into the 1920s.
1. It was often hard to tell how much time was passing after switching between points of view, and at one place I was very surprised to hear it was only 2 1/2 years after the war ended since from the setting and descriptions of clothing and business, everything felt much more settled into Prohibition, and thus later into the 1920s.
2. Cassie, the modern museum worker, had nothing personally at stake in her investigation, and her tragic childhood incident had no story purpose beyond making readers feel sorry for her, which was also unnecessary and not particularly convincing. When the story would be just as strong - or stronger - without a particular plot or character element, you can safely leave it out.
3. There was lots of potential for suspense and dark, seedy underbellies of Prohibition, but every incident was tidied up and prettied up, with the result that most of the suspense oozed away every time it seemed to be jacking up. Writing a story involving Prohibition, gangs, bootleggers,and shootouts on the dark midnight Detroit river, and having it lack suspense or tension any more than intermittently, is really not making best possible use of that rich historical material.
I'd give this three stars out of five, as it wasn't an unpleasant read and did a decent job of introducing Prohibition history to readers unfamiliar with the era.
#Bluebird #Netgalley #Prohibition #Windsor #Detroit #DetroitRiver
