Review of The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell

New York City, 1924: the height of Prohibition and the whole city swims in bathtub gin.

Rose Baker is an orphaned young woman working for her bread as a typist in a police precinct on the lower East Side. Every day Rose transcribes the confessions of the gangsters and murderers that pass through the precinct. While she may disapprove of the details, she prides herself on typing up the goriest of crimes without batting an eyelid.

But when the captivating Odalie begins work at the precinct Rose finds herself falling under the new typist's spell. As do her bosses, the buttoned up Lieutenant Detective and the fatherly Sergeant. As the two girls' friendship blossoms and they flit between the sparkling underworld of speakeasies by night, and their work at the precinct by day, it is not long before Rose's fascination for her new colleague turns to obsession.

But just who is the real Odalie, and how far will Rose go to find out?  

 

I hadn't heard of The Other Typist before I received it, but from reading the blurb I was drawn to this debut novel that would surely be different yet very thrilling as you read it. 

The Other Typist is set in the 1920s in New York, surrounding a police precinct. The main character is Rose a young woman who works as a typist, Rose was a orphan who is very reserved from being raise by nuns. Though upon the arrival of a new typist, Odalie, a posh sophisticated woman who catches Rose's attention straight away, everything changes. There is something about Odalie that makes her different, though as you read more of the story, she gets even more mysterious than first thought.

 

When Odalie invites Rose to stay with her, she wasn't expecting a hotel suite that seems to cost a fortune. Though that is not the only thing that Odalie is hiding, she has many more hidden secrets that Rose doesn't know about, yet the more she gets to know her Rose is more drawn in than before.

 

Though Odalie has secrets, so does Rose, she has some problems that are by no means minor. Though at least Rose doesn't lie about her past, like Odalie has with a number of stories about her past, Rose doesn't know which one is the truth and which are lies. This book shows the different elements of crime that happened in the 1920s along with the mystery lives of both Rose and Odalie, it shows how different they are and why they are different.

 

The ending was not what I expected though I think it sums the book up perfectly, it could be considered a small cliff-hanger but if not it still shows the complex characters that Suzanne Rindell brought to life within the pages of this novel. 

 

For a debut novel this book has excitement, a thrilling story and a lot of twists and turns to take you for a journey back in time. I would recommend this book to any person who loves a story about the past and the uniqueness that makes The Other Typist the story it is.

 

If I had to sum this book up in three words, they would be Thrilling, Sophisticated and Unique.

 

        Format - Paperback     

Source - Publisher

Release Date - 2nd January 2014

Publisher - Penguin 

  The rating I would give this book is:-

 Suzanne Rindell is a doctoral student in American modernist literature at Rice University. The Other Typist is her first novel. She lives in New York City and is currently working on a second novel.     Another day, another book,