The books are based on actual events with characters and deeds embellished to create marvelous historical novels. The present book finds Constance as both deputy and matron of the female prisoners at the Hackensack county jail in the autumn of 1916. Though she often sleeps at the jail, she still lives on the farm with her sisters ... The story begins with a high-speed foot chase through the streets of Hackensack as Constance runs down a thief and tackles him. 'Nothing,' she tells us, 'is more heartening than a solid arrest, made after a little gratifying physical exertion.' ... the novel excels in revisiting a vanished time, place and sensibility.
...Stewart again portrays the uncomfortable conditions experienced by women in America in the WWI era, including sketches of women detained on morality charges in the Hackensack jail. The particularly compelling main case here—about a woman committed to an insane asylum by her husband under false pretenses— furthers this theme and forms the heart of the story ... Constance herself—a tall, plain woman with a 'man’s job'—continues to drive the series with a no-nonsense personality that evokes a mix of Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell and Lawrence H. Levy’s Mary Handley. This entry is more suspenseful than its predecessors and boasts a deeper emphasis on character, politics, and social issues. A must for Constance’s growing fan base.
Constance Kopp fearlessly plows through her day as the first female deputy sheriff in New Jersey, following her instincts toward justice and confident that she’s on the right path. The story opens on her dangerous rescue of a prisoner who has tried to escape and ends up in a fast-flowing stormy river and, in handcuffs, practically drowns. When Constance heroically rescues him in a feat of strength, stamina and 'just won’t give up' swimming, it’s still not enough to win her the accolades she deserves...Instead of awarding her a medal for her bravery, the men in power call her 'demon deputy' and 'troublesome lady policeman' in an effort to sway public opinion by scapegoating an uppity woman as a disgrace to the office of the sheriff. Historically, it’s interesting to observe dirty election strategy at the turn-of-the-century, using the general misogyny that was alive and well at the time ... The...author has made a well-researched, rollicking story out of the three of them and Sheriff Heath, so that the reader can experience a flavor of life for women in the early 1900s in New Jersey just before the war.
