The Winter of Her Discontent: A Rosie Winter Mystery (Rosie Winter Mysteries) (Paperback)

by Kathryn Miller Haines (Author)
Key Phrases: Walter Friday, Vinnie Garvaggio, Shaw House (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Haines serves up hefty portions of medium-rare WWII home-front nostalgia, wartime slang and theater lore in her second Rosie Winter mystery (after 2007's The War Against Miss Winter). In March 1943, aspiring Broadway actress Rosie has her problems: she broke up with her sailor boyfriend, Jack, just before he shipped out and now he's missing in action; she's stuck with best friend Jayne in a cheap Manhattan rooming house with backstabbing theatrical aspirants; her petty gangster buddy Al's in the hoosegow for a murder Rosie's sure he didn't do; and beef rationing looms as a cruel April Fool's joke. Haines makes the girls' physical and emotional hungers both vivid and poignant as they desperately try to keep smiling, but her bitter tale about wartime sacrifices inevitably producing corruption is riddled with inaccuracies (e.g., U.S.A.A.F. officers wore olive drab, not dress blues; corporal isn't a navy rank). Still, Haines brings home the painful price the greatest generation paid more gallantly than anyone then knew. (July)
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From Booklist
The second Rosie Winter mystery finds the World War II–era Broadway actress (and former assistant to a private eye) using her sleuthing skills to solve a series of backstage crimes. Rosie and roommate Jane are cast in a troubled production of a musical financed by a lowlife mobster. After the show’s star is murdered and a pal of Rosie’s confesses to the crime, Rosie and Jane, not buying the confession, set out to find who really dunnit. As more accidents befall the cast and crew, it become clear that someone does not want the show to open. Haines capably combines home-front ambience (rationing, worries over soldier boyfriends) with plenty of backstage drama. The setting, a rooming house occupied by various actresses and dancers, provides no shortage of working-girl details, and Rosie and Jane make a winning team of feisty home-fronters. Several decades before Sex in the City, popular fiction thrived on less-explicit melodramas starring single gals making a go of it on their own; this entertaining tale draws on that tradition, successfuly spicing up the proceedings with a crime element. --Bill Ott

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; 1 edition (June 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061139807
• ISBN-13: 978-0061139802
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #100,636 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haines does it again!, June 27, 2008

By	D. White (Bordentown, NJ) - See all my reviews

In WAR AGAINST MISS WINTER, Haines created the irrepressible, wise-cracking character of Rosie Winter and set her mystery tale against the backdrop of New York's theatre scene during World War II. While that highly enjoyable novel teased with a level of verisimilitude that we're not used to seeing in a lot of mystery series, Haines takes Rosie several steps further in WINTER OF HER DISCONTENT. While the first novel's theatre-set story took place with WW II as a backdrop, the follow-up novel goes several steps further, giving us a mystery that's even more integrated into the moral and ethical dilemnas of wartime America. The result is a book that's as zippy and sharp as the first, but with a richness of character that's firmly set in a very specific time and place. Haines examines every nook and cranny of wartime New York City without ever sacrifcing the pacing and thoughtfulness that made WAR AGAINST MISS WINTER such an enjoyable thriller. As pulpy and lively as it is, there's an emotional truth to this series that you won't find elsewhere. Haines is really on to something and I, for one, can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spunky heroine does it again, June 30, 2008

By	A. T. White (New Jersey) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The second installment in the Rosie Winter mystery series offers more details on all fronts -- on Rosie, spunky actress and accidental private investigator, on life during WWII, as well as a backstage look at the NYC theatre scene. A great read for those who love historical mysteries and those with fabulous female heroines.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Winter of Her Discontent, July 25, 2008

By	Steven Rapaport "A Voice in Time" (Stockton, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Mrs. Haines has again captured the memories of the 40's in an outstanding mystery novel. Rosie is at her best trying to make ends meet as an actress and solve another crime at the same time. Mrs. Haines is able to describe the hardships faced by the up and coming thespians and at the same time weave a mystery that unfolds within the settings of the theatre. She is able to bring her characters to life and make us either love, hate or feel sorry for them. As she tells the story, WW II is ever present playing its part in the outcome of the novel. Mrs. Haines has again written a must read book that should be #1 on every mystery lovers list!