Lady Cop Makes Trouble (Kopp Sisters Series, 2)
Amy Stewart, 2016
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780544409941
Summary
The best-selling author of Girl Waits with Gun returns with another adventure featuring the fascinating, feisty, and unforgettable Kopp sisters.
After besting (and arresting) a ruthless silk factory owner and his gang of thugs in Girl Waits with Gun, Constance Kopp became one of the nation’s first deputy sheriffs. She's proven that she can’t be deterred, evaded, or outrun.
But when the wiles of a German-speaking con man threaten her position and her hopes for this new life, and endanger the honorable Sheriff Heath, Constance may not be able to make things right.
Lady Cop Makes Trouble sets Constance loose on the streets of New York City and New Jersey—tracking down victims, trailing leads, and making friends with girl reporters and lawyers at a hotel for women. Cheering her on, and goading her, are her sisters Norma and Fleurette—that is, when they aren't training pigeons for the war effort or fanning dreams of a life on the stage.
Based on a true story, Girl Waits with Gun introduced Constance Kopp and her charming and steadfast sisters to an army of enthusiastic readers. Those readers will be thrilled by this second installment—also ripped from the headlines—in the romping, wildly readable life of a woman forging her own path, tackling crime and nefarious criminals along the way. (From the publisher.)
This is the second novel in the series. Girl Waits with Gun (2015) is the first.
Author Bio
• Born—ca. 1968-69
• Where—N/A
• Education—B.S., M.S., University of Texas-Austin
• Awards—(See below)
• Currently—lives in Eureka, California
Amy Stewart is the author of eight books. Her debut novel Girl Waits With Gun, based on a true story, was published to wide acclaim in 2015. Lady Cop Makes Trouble, the second in the Kopp Sisters series, came out in 2016, also to favorable reviews.
She has also written six nonfiction books on the perils and pleasures of the natural world, including four New York Times bestsellers: The Drunken Botanist (2013), Wicked Bugs (2011), Wicked Plants (2009), and Flower Confidential (2009).
She lives in Eureka, California, with her husband Scott Brown, who is a rare book dealer. They own a bookstore called Eureka Books. The store is housed in a classic nineteenth-century Victorian building that Amy very much hopes is haunted.
Media
Since her first book was published in 2001, Stewart has appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition and Fresh Air, she’s been profiled in the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, and she’s been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, Good Morning America, the PBS documentary The Botany of Desire, and—believe it or not—TLC’s Cake Boss.
Amy has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, and many other newspapers and magazines. She is the co-founder of the popular blog GardenRant.
Honors & Awards
Amy’s books have been translated into twelve languages, and two of them—Wicked Plants and Wicked Bugs—have been adapted into national traveling exhibits that appear at botanical gardens and museums nationwide.
She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the American Horticulture Society’s Book Award, and an International Association of Culinary Professionals Food Writing Award. In 2012, she was invited to be the first Tin House Writer-in-Residence, a partnership with Portland State University, where she taught in the MFA program.
Lectures & Events
Amy travels the country as a highly sought-after public speaker whose spirited lectures have inspired and entertained audiences at college campuses such as Cornell and the University of Minnesota, corporate offices, including Google (where she served tequila and nearly broke the Internet), conferences and trade shows, botanical gardens, bookstores, and garden clubs nationwide. Go here to find out where she’s heading next. (Author bio from the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Oh, how Constance Kopp longs for the badge that tells the world she is indeed a deputy sheriff. But the powers-that-be are slow to approve her appointment. You see, in 1915, women cannot yet vote and most municipalities require that deputies be voters. So Constance is often stuck serving as a jail matron. Her immediate supervisor, affable Sheriff Heath, does allow her to be involved in some investigations ranging throughout Hackensack, New Jersey, and New York City. READ MORE.
Keddy Ann Outlaw - LitLovers
It’s "True Grit," New York style. Stewart delivers the second novel in her series based on the real-life antics of Constance Kopp, one of the few female deputy sheriffs who lived 100 years ago. With encouragement from her two sisters, Constance tracks a German con man through the streets of the Big Apple. The book’s title is inspired by several actual newspaper headlines of the time about the small number of women who worked in law enforcement.
New York Post
In this comic mystery set in 1915 and based on actual events, Constance Kopp, the first female deputy sheriff in Bergen County, N.J., is still packing a pistol and an attitude.... Stewart’s second volume...is a clever, suspenseful, and funny tale of a formidable woman facing crime, politics, social stigma, all while nailing evildoers..
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Constance and her sisters are every bit as enjoyable in this outing as their first. Stewart deftly combines the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of early 20th-century New York City with the story of three women who want to live life on their own terms. [S]upporting female characters...[are] a welcome touch to the series. —Sarah Cohn, Manhattan Coll. Lib., Bronx, NY
Library Journal
[W]ry situational humor and...unique, forceful character. Stewart adeptly introduces details of early twentieth-century life in Hackensack, New Jersey, a burgeoning city on the outskirts of New York, and timely concerns such as jail reform and women’s rights, rounding out this immensely satisfying mystery.
Booklist
[P]lot details are less compelling than our rooting interest in Constance out-detecting all the men (which she does) and in the evocative period atmosphere... of early-20th-century New York City.... Smart, atmospheric fun, with enough loose ends left dangling to assure fans there will be more entries in this enjoyable series.
Kirkus Reviews
Constance is based on a real woman who, just prior to World War I, became a deputy sheriff in New Jersey, one of the first of her kind in the country. And yes, she does make trouble.... Stewart crafts a heady brew of mystery and action in a fast-moving, craftily written novel that’s fueled by actual news headlines of the day.
BookPage
Discussion Questions
1. "Improbable as it may sound, I had, at last, found work that suited me," Constance says of her job as deputy sheriff (page 4). Do you think Mrs. Headison, the first other woman law enforcement officer Constance meets, would express the same sentiment? Why or why not?
2. In addition to her deputy sheriff duties, Constance serves Paterson as the jail matron. How do the expectations and requirements of this aspect of her job compare to those of her work as a deputy? How does each position speak to Constance’s strengths and weaknesses?
3. In this sequel, we get to see how Constance embraces her new role as deputy sheriff. How have the other Kopp sisters—Fleurette and Norma—come into their own, or changed, due to their battle with Henry Kaufman and his Black Handers from Girl Waits with Gun?
4. As she stakes out the home of an escaped convict’s brother, hoping to spot her quarry, Constance observes, "The shops looked like set pieces in a theater, waiting silently behind the curtain for the lights to come up and the actors to step out in their costumes and take the parts of shopkeepers and pushcart drivers" (page 97). What part is Constance playing at this point in the novel? How does the way she sees herself differ from the ways other characters see her, such as Sheriff Heath, Mrs. Heath, Norma and Fleurette?
5. In Girl Waits with Gun, we explored the lives of women in this time period through the lens of the Kopp sisters’ experiences. In Lady Cop Makes Trouble, we again delve into the lives of women, but this time the experience is much broader, taking us out into the world as Constance herself broadens her horizons. In an era where women have limited options, discuss how characters like Providencia Monafo, Mrs. Heath, Aunt Adele, and Constance deal with fears and disappointments: How do they each choose to cope?
6. Constance reminisces on page 192 about how hard her mother tried to keep her from escaping her world of domestic duties and isolated farm life. Constance similarly wants to keep Fleurette from escaping to the city, the theater, and all she fears that entails. Discuss the ways in which worldviews change between generations—especially those experiencing the kind of social change we see happening in this novel—and how this influences your opinion of Constance and Fleurette’s relationship. Do you think Constance’s concerns are well founded? How do you imagine young women like Fleurette and her friend Helen see these concerns?
7. "Deputies follow the orders given to them by the sheriff," says Sheriff Heath (page 240). Those who don’t, he asserts, are called outlaws. It’s true that Constance hasn’t received her badge and is not legally a deputy in this novel. But do you think Constance is an outlaw according to this definition? What power do titles and labels really have—can one still embody a role without "officially" owning its label? What other labels and titles are examined and challenged in this novel?
8. Sheriff Heath goes to great pains to keep Constance’s name out of the papers and keep her from public shame over losing von Matthesius. Do you think it’s reckless of her to pursue the man despite the sheriff’s direct orders to the contrary? "You only take orders from yourself," Heath admonishes (page 235). What would you have done in her place? What other "rules" does Constance break (or bend) in her life?
9. When they catch Reinhold, the messenger boy, he exclaims morosely, "Rudy told me to watch for police, but he didn’t say nothing about a lady" (p234). Many characters focus on women not being able to do what a man can do, but what about the reverse? Identify the advantages, both illustrated in this novel and in general, of having a female law enforcement officer.
10. Much changes once Constance captures von Matthesius. Describe the changes between her and her family. What else shifts for Constance and those around her? How might things have ended if Constance had not caught von Matthesius? How would his escape influence how you viewed Constance’s actions throughout the novel?
11. "The first line came with such tenderness that it seemed as if it was meant for each one of us," Constance thinks of the Christmas carol lyrics shared in the novel’s ending (page 302). Discuss how they apply to Constance and her fellow lawmen. Why do you think the author chose to end the novel with this poignant moment?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
top of page (summary)