Girl Waits with Gun Paperback - 2016

From the jacket flap

Girl Waits with Gun makes excellent use of history to put a fresh spin on classic cop-and-crook types. Amy Stewart s true-life protagonist is a rough and tumble version of the early twentieth century s New Woman. She is witty, sharply drawn, and suffers no fools! Suzanne Rindell, author of The Other Typist

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Drunken Botanist comes an enthralling novel based on the forgotten true story of one of the nation s first female crime fighters.

Constance Kopp doesn t quite fit the mold. She towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been isolated from the world since a family secret sent her and her sisters from city to country fifteen years ago. When a powerful, ruthless factory owner runs down their buggy, a dispute over damages turns into a war of bricks, bullets, and threats as he unleashes his gang on their farm. The sheriff enlists her help, and it turns out Constance has knack for outwitting (and disarming) the criminal element that might just take her back out into the world and onto a new path in life. Quick-witted and full of madcap escapades, Girl Waits with Gun is a story about one woman rallying the courage to stand up for and grow into herself with a little help from sisters and sheriffs along the way.

Through Amy Stewart s exuberant storytelling, Constance Kopp catapults from forgotten historical anecdote to unforgettable historical fiction heroine an outsized woman not only ahead of her time but sometimes, even, ahead of ours.
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