If you have not read any of the series you won't know that the main characters are based on real people.
Constance Kopp was one of the first lady cops. She had a sister Norma, and 'sister' Fleurette who is really Constance's child, the result of being seduced by a door-to-door Singer salesman when she was a teenager. Stewart has delved into the newspaper files to resurrect the Kopp girls, fictionalizing freely to fill in the blanks left in their histories.
The series begins in 1914, and this installment brings us to WWI.
Constance has been recruited by Washington, DC to spy on American Germans aiding the enemy. Fleurette is entertaining the stateside troops as part of a song and dance troupe. And Norma has enlisted to help the Army develop a pigeon messenger program in France where she rooms with a nurse.
Between the three Kopps, readers see the war from many fronts.
The novel is totally epistolary, comprised of the letters between the sisters, their bosses, and family and friends.
As in all the book in the series, a major focus in on the role of women in society, their contributions and the limitations society places on them. Norma fights for her work to be taken seriously and solves the problem of missing medical supplies. Fleurette is arrest under The American Plan which locked up women suspected of sexual promiscuity and corrupting the troops. Constance goes undercover as a spy.
The crimes that the Kopps solve are based on actual crimes. One act of sabotage mentioned took place at the Curtiss North Elmwood plant in Buffalo, NY. It was the world's largest airplane factory when it was built, located just down the road from where I grew up. (My grandfather was an engineer at a later Curtiss plant operating during WWII.)
Fans will enjoy the book. Newbies may want to start with the first in the series. Once you fall for the Kopps there is no turning back. We will read to the very end of the series!
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Read about the other books in the series:
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2019/05/catching-up-with-miss-kopp.html
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2019/09/kopp-sisters-on-march-by-amy-stewart.html
by Amy Stewart
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/ Mariner Books
Historical Fiction
Pub Date: January 21, 2021
ISBN: 9780358093121
paperback $15.99 (USD)
from the publisher
The indomitable Kopp sisters are tested at home and abroad in this warm and witty tale of wartime courage and camaraderie.
The U.S. has finally entered World War I is and Constance is chasing down suspected German saboteurs and spies for the Bureau of Investigation while Fleurette is traveling across the country entertaining troops with song and dance. Meanwhile, at an undisclosed location in France, Norma is overseeing her thwarted pigeon project for the Army Signal Corps. When Aggie, a nurse at the American field hospital, is accused of stealing essential medical supplies, the intrepid Norma is on the case to find the true culprit.
The far-flung sisters—separated for the first time in their lives—correspond with news of their days. The world has irrevocably changed—will the sisters be content to return to the New Jersey farm when the war is over?
Told through letters, Dear Miss Kopp weaves the stories of real life women into a rich fiction brimming with the historical detail and humor that are hallmarks of the series, proving once again that “any novel that features the Kopp Sisters is going to be a riotous, unforgettable adventure” (Bustle).
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