PreOrder Blitz w/Review: The Woman in the Camphor Trunk by Jennifer Kincheloe

THE WOMAN IN THE CAMPHOR TRUNK By Jennifer Kincheloe

An Anna Blanc Mystery

Pages: 304

Publisher: Seventh Street Books (November 14, 2017)

Romance/Historical/20^th Century/Mystery,Thriller,Suspense

BLURB

Los Angeles, 1908. In Chinatown, the most dangerous beat in Los Angeles, police matron Anna Blanc and her former sweetheart, Detective Joe Singer, discover the body of a white missionary woman, stuffed in a trunk in the apartment of her Chinese lover. If news about the murder gets out, there will be a violent backlash against the Chinese. Joe and Anna work to solve the crime quietly and keep the death a secret, reluctantly helped by the good-looking Mr. Jones, a prominent local leader. Meanwhile, the kidnapping of two slave girls fuels existing tensions, leaving Chinatown poised on the verge of a bloody tong war. Joe orders Anna to stay away, but Anna is determined to solve the crime before news of the murder is leaked and Chinatown explodes.

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REVIEW

By John Kurtze

Jennifer Kincheloe’s THE WOMAN IN THE CAMPHOR TRUNK is a historical fiction mystery thriller set in 1908 in Los Angeles. Kincheloe masterfully creates an intriguing storyline around her protagonist Anna Blanc, who is a police matron for the Los Angeles Police Department. Anna continues working towards her independence, moving out of her family home breaking all of the rules and lives from pay check to pay check to pursue her dream of pursuing a career in law enforcement. Anna and her former boyfriend Detective Joe Singer discover a body of young white missionary woman. Kincheloe provides the backstory of the woman found in a trunk in the apartment of her Chinese lover. Joe and Anna work to keep the murder quite to avoid riots breaking out in Chinatown. The author introduces several support characters giving readers each characters backstory and the role they play as they appear in the storyline.

Kincheloe adds twists and turns changing the direction of the storyline with subplots focusing on life in Chinatown. The storyline’s primary focus of finding the murderer has a side story dealing with two missing slave girls creating friction between the Hop Sing Tong and Bing Kong Tong. Joe tries to protect Anna by telling her to leave Chinatown, but Anna won’t leave until she brings the killer to justice. THE WOMAN IN THE CAMPHOR TRUNK is full of action on every page leading readers into secretive areas of Chinatown and giving them insight into the woman who is ahead of her time as she deals with her unusual relationship with Joe. Kincheloe delivers a story keeping her readers on pins and needles. She forces them to keep reading to discover how Anna survives the dangers of Chinatown. Kincheloe delivers an ending that captures the imagination of her readers. THE WOMAN IN THE CAMPHOR TRUNK brings the story of Kincheloe’s murder mystery to life as if it were a full-length feature film. A must read.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jennifer is a research scientist turned writer of historical fiction. Her novels take place in 1900s Los Angeles among the police matrons of the LAPD and combine, mystery, history, humor, and romance. THE WOMAN IN THE CAMPHOR TRUNK will be released in November, 2017. Her debut novel, THE SECRET LIFE OF ANNA BLANC was a finalist in the Lefty Awards for Best Historical Mystery, The Colorado Author’s League Award for Best Genre Fiction, the Macavity Sue Feder Award for Historical Mystery, and is the WINNER of the Mystery & Mayhem Award for Historical Mystery and the Colorado Gold for Best Mystery. Jennifer grew up in Southern California, but has traveled to such places as Nicaragua, Ethiopia, and Papua New Guinea. She’s been a block layer, a nurse’s aid, a fragrance model, and on the research faculty at UCLA, where she spent 11 years conducting studies to inform health policy. Jennifer currently lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband and two teenagers, two dogs, and a cat. There she conducts research on the jails.