Meredith Jaeger

We meet Annie in 1890 - an Irish immigrant who worked as a housemaid in a wealthy household.

She was tricked by one of the male members of the family she worked for. He took a ring out of his aunt’s jewelry box while visiting, gave it to Annie, and denied giving Annie the ring when she was accused of stealing it.

Annie was arrested and sentenced to one year in San Quentin with 20 other women inmates.

We follow Annie as she lives through the awful conditions and treatment in the prison.

Then we meet Judy In 1972 as she has left her husband and is struggling to stay away from Tony and find a job.

Judy finds a photo of Annie inside a book at a photographer’s shop where she gets a job and makes it her mission to find out more about Annie.

Judy also attends meetings she learned about from a librarian as she was doing research on Annie.

The meetings focus on the how residents protest against the demolition of areas of San Francisco that the city deems an eyesore. The problem, though, is that the residents have been living there for almost their entire lives.

Annie will pull at your heart strings as you suffer along with her because of the accusation and while she is in San Quentin.

Judy will have you hoping she finds what she can about Annie, hoping she can keep her husband at bay, and hoping she is able to help the residents.

Ms. Jaeger’s descriptive writing and amazing research pull you in immediately.

You won't want to put the book down because you want to know if Annie survived and if Judy was successful in finding herself and finding Annie's full story.

The Incorrigibles is another marvelous read you won’t be able to put down because of the characters, their stories, and especially if you are a fan of historical fiction. 5/5

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.… (altro)

I absolutely loved this book! I know it is good historical fiction when I spend a lot of time researching the information on Google and reading about a part of history I hadn't heard of, one that the book has introduced me to. In this case, it was interesting to read about the unsolved murder of a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl and the lifestyle of the showgirls back then.
The story did a good job on the dual timeline between 1923 from Iris's perspective and 1945 from Ellie's timeline where she searches for her dad (WWII pilot) who has been reported missing. The truth of the over 70,000 Americans still accounted for from WWII is haunting, and adds another interesting piece to this story. I enjoyed reading about the glamorous life in NYC during the 1920s.
Over the course of the story, Ellie (the pilot's daughter) finds her backbone, determined to get answers of her father's life, risking her job at the newspaper, and her "well placed" engagement. I loved her relationship with her aunt, Iris, a woman who had her own secret past. A woman who, along with Ellie, takes the precarious journey to resolve the past so they can move on with their lives.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this book.… (altro)

Browsing book covers on my Kindle I was captivated by the cover with a woman holding a letter in her hand facing Times Square noting that one of the signs advertised "Ziegfeld Follies." As the daughter of a WWII Army veteran and a U.S. Cadet Nurse who loves jazz I was further intrigued by the highlight, "A Novel of WWII and the Jazz Age."

Meredith Jaeger's writing touched my heart beyond any anticipation I had or could have imagined prior to reading the opening pages of the novel. A quote from "The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 19, 1941" is shared prior to the "Prelude" that occurs in "New York City, March 15, 1923." As the reader turns the page, Ellie Morgan is introduced living in "San Francisco, January 1945 recalling the Western Union telegram that had been sent to Ellie's mother 6 weeks earlier from the Secretary of War. How can this mother and daughter possibly move forward?

I encourage all readers to read the "Author's Note" that shares the author's inspiration for this compelling and powerful novel. As heartbreaking as some chapters were to read I could never have stopped reading this story. Rich with details of the 1920's in Manhattan and 1945 in San Francisco, relationships of family and friends, murder and mystery, the darkness behind the glitter of the Ziegfeld Follies, and the unspoken reality that lingers when a loved one does not return from war is suspenseful, riveting, and poignant. For all who appreciate well-written and especially well researched historical fiction it is not to be missed.… (altro)