Customer Reviews

The War Against Miss Winter (Rosie Winter Mysteries)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It is incredibly satisfying to discover new authors with a flair for fiction that typically denotes decades of publishing under the belt. In one such exceptional debut novel, The War Against Miss Winter, actor and playwright Kathryn Miller Haines introduces readers to Rosie Winter, aspiring actress, part-time file clerk, and amateur sleuth. Rosie takes on a job keeping books for a private detective to make ends meet in between acting jobs. When she has the unpleasant experience of finding her boss Jim's dead body in the office after a holiday break, she finds herself being forced from all directions into resuming Jim's work and recovering a missing play manuscript that may very well be the cause of his death. Rosie is not alone in her quest and the person who shares a common goal is willing to commit murder under the watch of a corrupt legal system to achieve it.


Readers will immediately find Rosie endearing. She is funny, smart, sarcastic and sassy: a feminist before her time. She stands tough against the many shady characters she encounters, ignoring obvious threats to her survival. Who can't respect a woman who can sit down and offer a doughnut to a mob henchman who's been tailing her? She makes it difficult to say goodbye to The War Against Miss Winter when the adventure is over. We can rest assured, she'll be back with another mystery in 2008, The Winter of Her Discontent. Hopefully there are many more adventures in store.


On a more somber note, with The War Against Miss Winter being set in 1943 in the midst of World War II, Haines captures the turmoil brewing in a society paranoid that the enemy lurks around every corner. Citizens struggle with rationing, moral dilemmas in what would otherwise be mundane daily activities, the emotion of sending loved ones off to war, and the devastation of loss as soldiers inevitably succumb to the perils of battle. Rosie can't walk a block without seeing a war poster or some reminder of the conflict overseas. Finding the manuscript almost becomes a way of distracting her attention from the fact that her own boyfriend has shipped out without a letter or a goodbye.


Haines has created a novel that not only provides a perplexing journey, but actively engages the reader in solving the mystery. This is the type of story that causes the mind to wander with possibilities as it progresses, eager to solve the crime. The characters could have stepped right out of the screen of a classic black and white detective flick, complete with drama and slang. This reviewer will be eagerly awaiting the next installment of Rosie's adventures.

An undeniable triumph for both author and lead character on debut, "The War Against Miss Winter" is a witty, period-perfect portrayal of the exploits of an endearing young woman who has one eye set on stardom, and the other on the look-out for anything of a suspicious nature. Set in New York in the 1940s, our heroine, Rosie Winter, is a talented, yet unemployed aspiring actress, who has a fall-back day job at a small detective agency. Her boss, Jim McCain does the normal "cheating spouses" cases through the front door, but has another type of clientele that make use of the fire escape and the back window to his office.

Just after the Christmas holidays, Rosie visits the office and finds her boss swinging, and not in a good way. Although ruled a suicide by a cynical police investigator, Rosie isn't convinced, and soon finds herself swept up in her most dangerous role ever, involving mobsters, murderers, hired muscle, a missing play and a lot of people desperately seeking salvation.

Strong female characters dominate every chapter, and this novel is so rich in description that you'll turn the last page with the feeling that you were actually there. A very promising debut by Kathryn Miller Haines, and hopefully just book one in the Rosie Winter detective series.

Rated: 4.5 stars




Amanda Richards, October 5, 2007

I am 60 pages into this book and I'm not even sure I will finish it. The author has Rosie Winter speak and think in a slang so thick you almost can't see the plot behind it. Get Real, Kathryn Miller Haines (or stick to theater scripts)

The War Against Miss Winter is a fun historical mystery. It has a great plot with a surprise ending and Mrs. Haines
has great characters. Rosie the hero is a wonderful character who has a biting sense of humor! You can't help but love this book and hope Mrs. Haines writes many more mysteries!

Steve Rapaport

"The War Against Miss Winter" is set in New York City during WWII. The protagonist is Rosalind Winter, a struggling stage actress living in a rooming house exclusively for women in theatre. Since parts aren't coming along too briskly, she's taken a job as an assistant to a private detective. As the book begins, Rosie has discovered her boss murdered in his office. Almost at once the confusion begins. What was Jim working on and why are so many people looking for it but unwilling to say what it is they seek?

It's a good mystery and the setting is well drawn. The author does nearly sink the book by making Rosie talk like a a street tough, a male one at that. Rosie talking like a pulp fiction tough guy really strikes an off key note. (I've read the second in the series and it tones down considerably, so if you're evaluating whether you want to continue with the series, there is positive news.)

I haven't found Rosie to be my favorite mystery heroine, but she's likeable enough and the wartime city setting is different and interesting. The mysteries in the series are anchored in the times, not just a generic puzzle pinned onto the gimmick setting du jour, which is very refreshing.

This book is a delight from beginning to end. Wisecracking Rosie is dead-on for a New York gal of that time. It is different, fun and most enjoyable.

As I may be one of the few still alive who was a teenager in New York at that time, I naturally look for anachronisms, which are usually plentiful in "historical" novels. I am absolutely astonished that Ms Haines has got that period, the way people talk, the expressions used, and the physical descriptions absolutely correct.

There were one or two that slipped in (I don't think "hinky" was used then, but it may have been), but for somebody who obviously was not living during that time frame, it is astonishing how she has it all down pat. I hoped her brief bio might explain how she did this, but no such luck. I suppose she may have talked to her grandparents or others who lived then, but it is a tour de force in that respect.

Set amid the theatre scene of war-time NYC, The War Against Miss Winter introduces us to the irrepressible Rosie Winter, an aspiring actress looking for her big break but forced to work as a file clerk in a detective agency to make ends meet. As 1942 ushers in 1943, Rosie finds herself about to be thrown out of her working actresses only boarding house and her boyfriend shipping out for the war. Things take another turn for the worse when she discovers her boss's corpse, leading her to try to find out who murdered him and made it look like a suicide.

Rosie's a busy girl, but she is also tenacious, sarcastic, headstrong, and determined, so she begins following clues to find out what might have gotten her boss killed. Along the way, she meets some unsavory characters and uncovers traces of a missing play at the root of the act. With her best friend Jayne, Rosie goes full tilt toward solving the dangerous mystery while suffering through humiliating rehearsals as an understudy in a not very good play.

While I wasn't particularly surprised at the mystery, I will say that the setting and the characters are truly the heart of this novel. Rosie is just wonderful with her subtle manuevers and her fierce loyalty, and the people she encounters in both her professional and personal lives are just as interesting. I could feel the war coloring everything as it must have done, and I could easily picture the burgeoning theatre community of the times. This novel is so much fun and the beginning of an intriguing series. I can't wait to get to the next one!

Aspiring actress Rosalind Winter's luck is all bad: her boyfriend was shipped out after they had a falling-out, if she can't get a role soon she'll be tossed out of her theatrical boarding house, and when she walks into the office of her part-time job (secretarial work for a private detective), she discovers her boss has (ostensibly) committed suicide. She knows there's something suspicious about the death, odd people keep approaching her, and suddenly she's involved in a production by an offbeat playwright.

I was ambivalent about this one: on one hand I enjoyed the 1940s wartime New York City setting, the behind-the-scene theatrical machinations, the life at Rosie's boarding house, her friendship with the deceptively fragile Jayne, and some of the supporting characters, including Jayne's mobster boyfriend and Rosie's unexpected new friend Al. On the other hand, I wavered back and forth about caring about the plot, which mixed one part of Rosie's life with the other, and Rosie's excessive use of 1940s slang gets really wearing after a while. If you are a fan of 40s noir-ish mystery with a wisecracking heroine, you might enjoy this, but I'm debating going on with the series. I hear the slang is slackened in the sequel.

As a reader with a great fondness for mysteries, the theater, New York, and the WWII period, I assumed this book could hardly fail to please me. Was I wrong! If the author had spent half as much time developing her characters as she did researching obscure slang, the work might have been mildly amusing. Rosie and her friends, however, were shallow enough to drown in a saucer. And the plot was completely implausible even by light weight mystery standards. Save your money and your time.

I've never felt the need to write a review for Amazon before. I figured what I liked in books might not be what others like. But I really enjoyed THE WAR AGAINST MISS WINTER and wanted to tell others why.

For the past 10 months I've been on a murder mystery binge. I don't know why, and I've given up trying to figure out why. But somehow I've put down almost two dozen books in this time. Some were good, some were excellent, and many were so-so. But there were several things about this novel that really stood out for me.

First, Rosie Winter is a bang up, first rate, strong female lead character. (And to top it off, she lives in an age where being a tough woman was not easy). She has a sharp tongue and she's not afraid to use it. In fact, it gets her in as much trouble as it avoids. But it's not that Rosie is like her riveting namesake (tough as nails and without fear). Our heroine is REAL. She has flaws. She lacks confidence. Sometimes her self-assessments are correct: she's considered very tall for a woman, and seems to lack grace for things like singing and dancing. But sometimes she's off the mark. While the author doesn't say it, it seems Rosie is probably pretty cute. Add her charm, wit, and intelligence, and many a man would swoon. Many an actress has made a career on less in the natural ability department. Of course, she is our hero, and she does rush in where most humans and many angels would never go. She is also willing to stand up for her friends and what she believes in. Perhaps this trait slips past most readers, but in real life this can be one of the most difficult things, especially in our current politically correct social structure. Getting back to the book, I found that I really cared for Rosie, Al, and Jayne. Indeed, I wanted to strangle Ruby with my own hands! - And all this from a fictional character.

I wasn't alive during the time period in which THE WAR AGAINST MISS WINTER took place, but parents talk about it incessantly. (I guess once you live through something like that it never really leaves you). I read some sections to them on the phone and they said it was all exactly they way the remember it. A great job to the author for creating both characters that are believable, but a believable world to surround them.

I hope my enthusiasm encourages others to pick up this book. I learned that more adventures for Rosie are on the way, and I can't wait.