The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell

Fasten your seatbelt and get ready for a great ride…meet Rose, police stenographer in New York, 1923.  She confidentially records the confessions of criminals.  What happens when she meets Odalie, a new stenographer, and is lured into Odalie’s faster moving evening circles?  Should she enjoy some side benefits of their friendship-evenings out, free meals, a nicer place to live?  These are all temptations for self-made Rose, and become easier and easier to accept.  There is a price, of course, as Rose starts to note mistakes Odalie is making at work, and has to decide what to do.  After all, these are confessions, and futures are at stake.

There is one criminal who seems to be a repeat visitor to the precinct.  He is awful and he is smug.  Rose and the police are convinced he is guilty, but never manage to elicit a confession or find enough evidence to convict.  What would happen if Rose recorded a confession?  Would a judge believe the transcript or the suspect?

Kirkus reviews says The Other Typist is part Alfred Hitchcock and part Great Gatsby.  I would agree.  Hold out for the last third of the book.  It is all good, but that last section is page-turning-stay-up-way-too-late-fabulous. 

The Falmouth Memorial Library owns a copy of The Other Typist.