Description A Girl Like You by Michelle Cox
Henrietta Von Harmon works as a 26 girl at a corner bar on Chicago’s northwest side. It’s 1935, but things still aren’t looking up since the big crash and her father’s subsequent suicide, leaving Henrietta to care for her antagonistic mother and younger siblings.
Henrietta is eventually persuaded to take a job as a taxi dancer at a local dance hall―and just when she’s beginning to enjoy herself, the floor matron turns up dead. When aloof Inspector Clive Howard appears on the scene, Henrietta agrees to go undercover for him―and is plunged into Chicago’s grittier underworld.
Meanwhile, she’s still busy playing mother hen to her younger siblings, as well as to pesky neighborhood boy Stanley, who believes himself in love with her and keeps popping up in the most unlikely places, determined to keep Henrietta safe―even from the Inspector, if need be. Despite his efforts, however, and his penchant for messing up the Inspector’s investigation, the lovely Henrietta and the impenetrable Inspector find themselves drawn to each other in most unsuitable ways.
My Thoughts A Girl Like You by Michelle Cox
Henrietta Von Harmon is the oldest daughter of a large family in 1930’s Chicago. Her father committed suicide leaving his oldest daughter to support her mother and younger siblings. She is a teenager. Luckily the barkeeper, Mr. Hennesy, who’s bar her father frequented took pity on her and hired her to clean. He later promoted her to a 26 girl. 26 was a game, men gambled on. Mr. Hennesy soon became a father figure for her.
Around the age of 17 she was persuaded by a friend to get a job as a taxi dancer. She knew her mother wouldn’t approve but her mother also complained that they didn’t have enough money and blamed Hennrietta. She bought one nice dress for the job and hid it at work to change into. While there, a very handsome man paid to dance with her. Not long after, the woman who ran the place was found murdered. When she appeared at work she was told. She however, met her dance partner again, he turned out to be a police detective, Inspector Clive Howard.
Now out of a job, the inspector offer’s her undercover work that becomes dangerous.
I loved this book. I hated the way Henrietta’s mother treated her but had a lot of respect for Henrietta herself. She was the only one in her family who stepped up to support the family. The romance between Clive and Henrietta was nice and understated so it didn’t detract from the mystery and rest of the story. Michelle Cox made 1930’s Chicago come back to life, with all of it’s grit, glitter, and grime! By the time the book ended, I was addicted and bought the next in the series. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
This is the first book in the ‘A Henrietta and Inspector Howard’ series. I received the ebook for my honest opinion. I also received the 5th ebook in the series which I will be reviewing soon. I rarely read an entire series but I read all 5 books within a few weeks. It was more like I devoured them!
About Michelle Cox
Michelle Cox is the author of the multiple award-winning Henrietta and Inspector Howard series as well as Novel Notes of Local Lore, a weekly blog dedicated to Chicago’s forgotten residents. She suspects she may have once lived in the 1930s and, having yet to discover a handy time machine lying around, has resorted to writing about the era as a way of getting herself back there. (Her books have been praised by Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and many others, so she might be on to something.)
Unbeknownst to most, Cox hoards board games she doesn’t have time to play and is, not surprisingly, addicted to period dramas and big band music. Also, marmalade.
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