When Winter Returns: A Rosie Winter Mystery (Rosie Winter Mysteries, 4)

by Kathryn Miller Haines

Book Overview

"Kathryn Miller Haines perfectly captures the feel, sights and sounds of New York in the 1940s....A lot of fun." --Rhys Bowen Aspiring actress and sometime sleuth Rosie Winter is back in When Winter... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061579572
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Length: 333 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.8" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

WOW!

WOW, KATHRYN MILLER HAINES HAS DONE IT AGAIN! I LOVED THE FIRST THREE ROSIE WINTER MYSTERIES AND HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR HER FOURTH BOOK "WHEN WINTER RETURNS" AND IT WAS DEFINITELY WORTH WAITING FOR--YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED! I LOOK FORWARD TO BOOK NUMBER 5! AND I AM HOPING FOR SOME AUDIO TAPES FOR THE ROAD AS WELL. THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY THE BEST MYSTERIES EVER!

Highly recommended to mystery lovers and WWII historical fiction lovers

Rosie Winter and her friend Jayne Hamilton return to New York from a USO tour in the South Pacific. Rosie's homecoming is not a bed of roses. When the two visit the family of Jayne's recently deceased fiance, they discover that Billy DeMille is not exactly the man they thought he was. Rosie decides to search out the mystery behind the identity of Billy DeMille while also trying to help Jayne cope with the grief of her loss. Rosie herself must re-examine her feelings for her ex-, Jack Castegate, who has returned home injured and engaged to a WAC private. Rosie and Jayne return to the familiar boarding house, the George Bernard Shaw Home for Women Pursuing Theatrical Vocations, to find themselves home yet not quite home. Likewise, Rosie comes home to a country that has changed since her absence. Fears of saboteurs have excited the imagination of the newspapers and the hint of a German ancestry provokes suspicion. Jayne's former boyfriend Tony, a mobster, resurfaces and the mobsters seem to behind the women's casting rejections. Rosie finds herself telling lie after lie, always with the best intentions of helping or protecting her friends. Will Rosie be able to discover the man behind the facade of Billy DeMille? Will she be able to help her friends or will her lies box her into a dangerous circle? Set in 1943, WHEN WINTER RETURNS, Kathyrn Miller Haines creates an energetic, fast-paced mystery with several intriguing clues to keep the puzzle lover guessing. WHEN WINTER RETURNS, and the Rosie Winter mysteries in general, add a freshness to the scope of WWII mysteries. Rosie's adventures take a reader into the world of performers, mobsters and German-Americans. The author brings this period alive beyond history book facts, not only in the cast of characters, but also through Rosie's reflections on the changed state of society at home. Now, returning home after seeing seen the war up close, Rosie sees the naivete of the faith she once had. Indeed, the theme of loss runs throughout the story, giving a rich emotional background to the characters. Kathyrn Miller Haines interweaves historical details of the acting industry personnel as well as the influence of the Alien Registration Act within the very heart of the story. WHEN WINTER RETURNS is all the richer for the author's ability to see both the dangers of the policy as well as the threat of saboteurs. Through Rosie's eyes, a reader easily feels the tensions of the times as well as the conflicting tensions within an individual. Cough syrup brands and other period details give a sense of historical authenticity that goes beyond history book events. Despite the losses surrounding Rosie, she is a dynamic woman, a woman always ready to help her friends. Rosie finds herself spinning a web of lies in an effort to protect her friends, a scenario that a bit of humor to the story as the reader watches her box herself into a corner. Seeing the homeland at war through Rosie's eyes expands

superb tale

In 1943, Rosie Winter and her best friend Jayne Hamilton are elated to be back in New York following their traumatic South Pacific USO tour (see Winter in June). The pair makes a special stop in Upstate New York to pay their respects to the parents of Billy DeMille, Jayne's late fiancé who died in action two months ago. However, the pair is stunned to learn their Billy was not the real Billy; he stole the identity of DeMille who died at Pearl harbor during the infamous attack. At the George Bernard Shaw Home for Women Pursuing Theatrical Vocations in Manhattan, Rosie shares rooms with her enemy Ruby Priest, and Jayne with eccentric Ann Fremont. They visit the apartment of the Billy they knew and find German letters written in disappearing ink and a stack of money. Jayne's mobster former boyfriend Tony is causing trouble and the two performers cannot find parts as another gangster Vinnie has blacklisted them. Finally Jack is back; apparently having deserted after being injured while at war The latest Winter WW II drama is a superb tale as the can-can girls return home bringing alive mostly Manhattan with their lively dance steps. The mystery of "the wrong Mr. Wright is fun to follow while the two actresses struggle to find work, having been blacklisted by the Mob several years before McCarthy did likewise. Rosie is at her best as she weaves a web of lies to protect her friends only to be overwhelmed with keeping track while also trying to solve everyone's problems because everything's not coming up Rosie. Harriet Klausner

Wonderful read with an amazing character driven storyline

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 hon