Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Constance Kopp returns as the only woman Sheriff Heath is willing to hire as a deputy at the Bergen County Sheriff's Department in New Jersey, in Lady Cop Makes Trouble, the second mystery in this series by Amy Stewart.

Constance is a stout woman, almost six feet tall, able to take on most men her size and even larger. Although she gets paid the same amount of money as do the male detectives, and she the does the duties and works as a deputy and she has yet to receive her badge. Sheriff Heath has great faith in her abilities but as yet cannot convince his bosses that she should be treated as a true detective. When she somehow allows a criminal to escape while under her watch, she is demoted to the women's section of the jail where she becomes involved in an unsolved murder.

A woman has confessed that she killed a man when it almost certain that her husband had committed the crime. Her husband is abusive and she hates him. Why is this woman taking the blame? More pressing to Constance is finding the escaped convict because if he isn't found the law requires that Sheriff Heath would be jailed in his place. Constance is determined that she will not let this happen. On her own time she takes to the streets of Hackensack, New Jersey and New York City to hunt down Harold Meeker, the man she let escape. While tracking down leads she stayed a hotel in New York, making friends with a female reporter and lawyer, who give her advice and cheer her on.

Back at home, Constance's sisters, Norma and Fluerette, continue with their efforts to secure their futures: Norma training pigeons as messengers for the war effort and Fleurette dancing, singing and making costumes for the theatre, dreaming of her life on the stage.

Will Constance be able to right her wrong and keep the upright sheriff out of jail? And, will Constance ever be able to become a deputy sheriff and receive her badge?

Lady Cop Makes Trouble is based on headlines of the New York Times back in September 1914. Some of the characters are real and some added to fill out the story. But all the characters are well-developed and the principal elements of the tale are based on real facts. For fans of historical mysteries, this series is a real treat and this entry in it quite enjoyable.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Lady Cop Makes Trouble.

Acknowledgment: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt provided a copy of Lady Cop Makes Trouble for this review.

Girl Waits With Gun
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Hardcover), September 2015
ISBN-13: 9780544409910; ISBN-10: 0544409914

Lady Cop Makes Trouble

A Kopp Sisters Mystery by Amy Stewart