Tomboy: A Jane Benjamin Novel (A Jane Benjamin Novel)

By: Shelley Blanton-Stroud

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Synopsis: It&’s 1939. On the brink of World War II, Jane Benjamin wants to have it all. By day she hustles as a scruffy, tomboy cub reporter. By night she secretly struggles to raise her toddler sister, Elsie, and protect her from their mother. But Jane&’s got a plan: she&’ll become the San Francisco Prospect&’s first gossip columnist and make enough money to care for Elsie.Jane finagles her way to the women&’s championship at Wimbledon, starring her hometown&’s tennis phenom and cover girl Tommie O&’Rourke. She plans to write her first column there. But then she witnesses Edith &“Coach&” Carlson, Tommie&’s closest companion, drop dead in the stands of apparent heart attack, and her plan is thrown off track.While sailing home on the RMS Queen Mary, Jane veers between competing instincts: Should she write a social bombshell column, personally damaging her new friend Tommie&’s persona and career? Or should she work to uncover the truth of Coach&’s death, which she now knows was a murder, and its connection to a larger conspiracy involving US participation in the coming war?Putting away her menswear and donning first-class ballgowns, Jane discovers what upper-class status hides, protects, and destroys. Ultimately—like nations around the globe in 1939—she must choose what she&’ll give up in order to do what&’s right.