Ruthie

On the first day of 1930, a young single woman from Iowa took the train to Denver for ajob as a church schoolteacher. Each day for six months, Ruthie recorded her life in aMilestone diary - capturing the sweet spot in Denver history between the Stock Marketcrash and the Great Depression. This book is a work of historical fiction weavingtogether factual diary entries with the fictional story of love, lies, deception and murder.In Denver, Ruthie waits every day for another letter from Walter, the farmer boyfriendshe left behind, who pleads for her return. She becomes friends with Rose, an agingflapper; is pursued by investigative reporter Buckshot; falls under the influence ofmanipulative school principal Mr. Keul; becomes a reclamation project of society womanMrs. Press; and attempts to tame Mary Helen, her most stubborn student.As a novice teacher, Ruthie deals with self-doubt, homesickness, and temptations. Shestruggles with an anger inherited from her alcoholic father and critical mother. On thedark streets of Denver, she carries a straight razor and a revulsion for the skid rowbums who remind her of her father. In Denver, nothing is what it seems. Most of allRuthie.