When Winter Returns: A Rosie Winter Mystery (Rosie Winter Mysteries) [Paperback]

Kathryn Miller Haines (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 11, 2010 | Series: Rosie Winter Mysteries

Back from their USO stint in the South Pacific in the fall of 1943, Rosie Winter and her best friend, Jayne, head upstate to visit the home of Jayne's recently deceased fiancÉ. But what they find leaves Rosie wondering if the man ever existed to begin with.

As Rosie searches for the truth behind his identity—and a way to help heal Jayne's broken heart—she faces an unpleasant homecoming of her own. The newspapers are filled with tales of saboteurs infiltrating the East Coast. Her ex, Jack Castlegate, is also back in Manhattan, nursing severe war injuries, under scrutiny for desertion, and engaged to a gorgeous WAC private. Rosie and Jayne's friend Al is in hiding and no one seems willing to help him out.

Desperate to make things right, Rosie finds herself telling lie after lie to protect her friends and herself. But as her deceit mounts and lures danger out of hiding, she starts to wonder if they weren't all safer on the warfront than they are on the home front.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Set in the fall of 1943, Haines's captivating fourth Rosie Winter mystery (after 2009's Winter in June) finds Rosie and her best pal, Jayne Hamilton, back in New York after a harrowing South Pacific U.S.O. tour. First, they pay a call upstate on the parents of Jayne's late fiancé, Billy DeMille, who was killed in action two months earlier. To their surprise, they discover the Billy they knew stole the identity of the DeMilles' son, who died in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Back in Manhattan at the George Bernard Shaw Home for Women Pursuing Theatrical Vocations, Rosie must share rooms with her nemesis, Ruby Priest, and Jayne with weird Ann Fremont. At fake Billy's old digs, they uncover German letters written in disappearing ink and a stash of cash. To add to their woes, Jayne's ex-mobster honey, Tony, is causing trouble, and they can't land roles because another mobster has blackballed them. Haines vividly recreates WWII-era New York City, while daring Rosie never loses her can do attitude. (May)
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From Booklist

After a three-month USO tour in the South Pacific in 1943, actresses Rosie Winter and her best pal, Jayne Hamilton, visit the parents of Billy DeMille, Jayne’s fiancé, who was recently killed in action. It turns out that their Billy is not Jayne’s Billy. A hunt to discover who Jayne’s fiancé really was takes the two gals to Yorkville, the German section of Manhattan, at a time of rising prejudice against Germans. Rosie may occasionally overstep her bounds, but she is loyal to a fault and absolutely dogged. In the fourth in this series, she ferrets out answers involving Billy; assists a henchman of Jayne’s ex-boyfriend, mobster Tony B.; handles the blackball preventing Jayne and her from getting theater roles; and even helps the man she once loved and his current fiancée overcome his depression when he comes home from the war with one leg. Haines captures the spirit of the home front in a story that includes murder and sabotage while hinting that a new romance is in store for Rosie. Thoroughly entertaining for anyone who enjoys reading about the WWII era. --Michele Leber

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Product Details

• Paperback: 333 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (May 11, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061579572
• ISBN-13: 978-0061579578
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #525,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kathryn Miller Haines is an actor, mystery writer, and award-winning playwright. In addition to writing the Rosie Winter series for HarperCollins, she's also writes a mystery series for young adults also set during World War II for Roaring Brook Press. The first book in the series, The Girl is Murder, is about 15 year old Iris Anderson whose life is turned up side down when her mother kills herself and her father returns injured from Pearl Harbor. She also blogs about World War II and pop culture at www.thegirlis.blogspot.com

Here's a brief Q&A with Kathryn about why she decided to write a young adult novel:

This is your first mystery for young adults, after penning several of popular mysteries for adults in your Rosie Winter series. What made you decide to write for this new audience?

I love reading YA books and, as when I first tried my hand at mysteries, I wanted to see if I could write one for myself. I also felt like there was a whole world of World War II that hadn't been explored very much - what was the war like from the perspective of teenagers? In fact there's a great non-fiction book called Teenage that talks about adolescence through history that really got me buzzing about what life was like then.

What were some of the mysteries you enjoyed reading when you were young? I'm assuming Nancy Drew, due to the mention in the book, but I'd love to hear a few of your early faves.

Absolutely loved Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Truth told, though, I didn't read a lot of mysteries as a young 'un. I was a big Judy Blume fan (particularly Blubber, a book that has stayed with me all these years). Bridge to Terabithia will still make me cry. And I never met a Lois Duncan book I didn't tear through (though I guess those kind of are mysteries/thrillers).
What kind of research did you do to create an authentic early 1940s-New York City setting? Was there any difference in your research process for a young readers title compared to your work for adult titles?

I read a lot of great non-fiction books about the war, went through contemporary to the war issues of newspapers, magazines, comic books; listened to music and radio shows; looked at fashion; watched movies - pretty much surrounded myself with the kind of pop culture that I would've probably been into had I lived during that time.

With the adult mysteries, I think readers are looking for the nitty gritty details about the period whereas I don't think YA readers have the patience for a four page info dump on the history of air conditioning. It was freeing in some ways because I didn't have to be as specific and heavy handed with creating my world. I felt like I could create a flavor of the period without having to drown each scene in period detail. It became a lot more about experiencing the world through the character for me.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Read, May 16, 2010

By 

K. Parker (Maryland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When Winter Returns: A Rosie Winter Mystery (Rosie Winter Mysteries) (Paperback)

I'm a big fan of the Rosie Winter series so I was really excited to get this book. After reading it, I was a bit disappointed. It's a really good book on it's own but in comparison with the other books in the series, it's a little flat. It's missing the sass and the light hearted banter that has been prevalent in the other books (even Winter in June had a fun and playfullness to it). Maybe it was just difficult for me to see Rosie become this haven of lies and deception. It seems like every chapter had Rosie grappling with whether or not to tell the truth or how best to keep information from someone else and that just doesn't seem to be consistent with the character in the first three books. Maybe it's supposed to reflect a change in Rosie since the events that occured in the South Pacific? In any case, it's still a good read. I would have to list it as my least favorite in the series so far but I'll definitely be awaiting the next Rosie Winter novel and encourage others to become a fan of Rosie and Jayne.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful read with an amazing character driven storyline, May 11, 2010

By 

Mary J. Gramlich "The Reading Reviewer" (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When Winter Returns: A Rosie Winter Mystery (Rosie Winter Mysteries) (Paperback)

Rosie Winter is a woman living through the difficulties of WWII trying to find her place and to survive living through war times. She is an aspiring actress just returned from a USO tour with her friend Jayne to find her room at the boarding house had been rented. So now they are staying there but with new roommates who may be holding some secrets that are either life altering to the country or as simple as a women with a working knowledge of how to encrypt letters written in invisible ink.

Rosie was chasing a dream when she went overseas with the USO following her love Jack who it turns out was in love with someone else. But while Rosie's heart was broken her friend Jayne found love but all too soon lost her Billy when his plane was shot down. Rosie is trying to help her recover from this loss and as they go to say the proper respect to Jayne's late fiancé's parents it turns out he is not who he said he was and the life he was living was not his own. So the hunt begins to uncover who Billy really was, why was he was living under the name of another soldier and why does he have money hidden in a coat pocket he deserted. Rosie and Jayne are also dealing with Jayne's ex mob boyfriend who has gotten them blackballed from getting stage work waiting for Jayne to come back to him. Rosie is all about solving mysteries but this time are there too many to resolve, probably not for her. It also seems to be Rosie's responsibility to help her ex fiancé Jack as he recovers from the wounds he received overseas. Geez she is broken up with him isn't that enough pain and suffering, apparently not because he needs her strength to get better.

But things take a scary turn of events when the aunt of Jayne's deceased fiancée turns up murdered and the plot thickens to molasses with a lack of clues and too many suspects. Was her being German the problem, maybe a traitor or just an innocent victim of circumstance and prejudice? Rosie is an actress by career choice an amateur sleuth by natural instinct who when given all these clues can solve the crime and not just because she is nosy but just good at uncovering mysteries and fitting pieces of the puzzle together. If not for Rosie's ability to knock those walls down and barreling through the issues nothing would get done right but this time the dark shadows are following her so the bigger question becomes can she keep her herself as safe as she should so that nothing happens to her?

What wonderful characters, a well written book about a time in our history that has been well documented but not as much from the female point of view. Rosie provides us with the difficulties of trying to make enough money to survive, absorb the complexities of a country surviving the war and hopefully find the love of your life. None of these objectives would have been met if the writer did not articulate this as clearly and wonderfully as she does and write a mystery that keeps your turning the pages to solve. It was an honor to read this book and feel the emotions that come from the characters that lived through this very bleak time. This book is a great reflection of the best of times created out of the worst of times. Rosie is a good person trying to do what every woman in the 1940's was, have a career until she finds a husband and in the mean time solve a crime or two and Rosie is up for all of these challenges.

Mary Gramlich is The Reading Reviewer located at [...]

5.0 out of 5 stars as good as i hoped, October 11, 2010

By 

mindy - See all my reviews

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This review is from: When Winter Returns: A Rosie Winter Mystery (Rosie Winter Mysteries) (Paperback)

As mystery series go - Rosie Winter is totally enjoyable and this latest one did not let me down!