Lady Cop Makes Trouble (Constance Kopp)

Lady Cop Makes Trouble is the third book in the Kopp Sisters series by NYT best-selling American author, Amy Stewart. While she has been a very active Deputy for Sheriff Robert Heath at Hackensack for two months, Constance Kopp learns that her job is not as secure as she had hoped. Two months later, Constance is filling the role of jail matron for the female prisoners while she waits for her badge: as an elected official, Heath has found obtaining approval for employing the first female deputy is challenging.

One of her charges perplexingly admits to murder despite evidence to the contrary. Then a prisoner escapes under Constance's watch, putting both her job and the Sheriff's freedom in jeopardy. As her sisters keep themselves busy with their preferred pursuits (carrier pigeons, dressmaking and acting), Constance decides she must track down the escapee herself.

Constance does some excellent detective work and, being a well-built lady, does not eschew chase and tackle when required. In this instalment, Constance and Sheriff Heath prove that they make a very capable team, holding matching ideas about law enforcement and criminal detention, and affording each other respect for their intelligence and abilities.

Stewart's Historical Notes and Sources are interesting and informative, revealing that Constance Kopp and her sisters were real people, much as described, as are quite a few of the other characters. Many of the events that form the plot also occurred, if not always when stated. Stewart takes the known historical facts and fleshes them out into a marvellous tale.

Stewart effortlessly portrays the characteristics of everyday life of the early twentieth century and clearly demonstrates how different life was over a hundred years ago. The (often humorous) print column headlines to which, in the first book, the sisters continuously drew each other's attention, or occasionally invented to suit their particular situation, are noticeably absent in this book, but there is still humour in their dialogue. Excellent historical crime fiction that will have readers seeking out the third book, Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions.