Rose Baker is a young woman in the typing pool of the New York City
Police Department during Prohibition. She is plain, quiet and prudish about
life. However, she is also lonely. So
when Odalie, a glamorous flapper with bobbed hair and expensive clothes and
jewelry, joins the clerical staff and reaches out to Rose for friendship, Rose
is intrigued. Like a moth to a flame, Rose is drawn into Odalie’s dangerous
life, becoming her roommate, sharing her clothing and jewelry, accompanying her
to speakeasies and parties and running spurious errands on her behalf. Odalie is mysterious, with more than one
version of where she and her wealth came from: perhaps prostitution,
bootlegging or a family inheritance.
Whatever the source, she lives well and is generous in sharing her
comfortable life with Rose. But she also exacts payment for her generosity,
expecting Rose to blindly do her bidding. And Rose, having been drawn in by
Odalie and unable to return to her old life, cannot deny her. How much will Odalie ask of Rose? How far
will Rose be willing to go on Odalie’s behalf? Tension builds throughout the
entire book and these questions are not answered until the last page.
