CRACKERJACK!

In this novel, a stenographer finds the excitement she craves when she chances on someone’s illicit financial scheme.

Seasoned stenographer Cindy Jack is one of the best in the Eastern U.S. A private firm sends her to transcribe sessions with local government agencies, a boring job for a 29-year-old. She yearns to be “tussled,” though she doesn’t know specifically what that is or even what the word means. It could be she’s looking for Alonzo Prier, the dreamy senior counsel for the Hospital Rate Review Commission. Never mind that he’s married; Cindy tries subtly seducing him when they’re together at HRRC meetings by “striking keys and striking poses.” What catches Alonzo’s attention, however, is her access to transcriptions that may reveal a hospital’s “financial discrepancies” and “extreme irregularities.” When that hospital’s CFO suspects what’s going on, he enlists co-worker Denver Simmons to date Cindy, hoping to distract her from getting close to Alonzo. But will the two men later decide that Cindy knows too much? Rose’s leisurely paced story is driven by a dramatic cast. Cindy, for example, becomes “possessed” by classic Hollywood actor Greta Garbo and sees parallels between their lives, though the intriguing possibility of Garbo’s lesbianism linking them unfortunately leads nowhere. Nevertheless, Cindy is an engaging protagonist. She strives to be more than an invisible stenographer and works to help her older sister recover from her alcoholism. Narrative perspective intermittently shifts to others, most notably Alonzo, whose exciting career sharply contrasts with his drama-free home life. The story picks up considerably in the second half; Denver struggles to keep secrets from everyone (he’s not single). Although there’s no real mystery, a few choices among the cast surprise and culminate in a relatively quiet but gratifying denouement.

A smart, fascinating woman leads this languid, absorbing drama of seduction and lies.