Girl Waits With Gun by: Amy Stewart is about exactly that… a girl who waits with a gun. The predictability of the title is not at all shocking, but what is surprising is Constance Kopp’s role as a woman in New Jersey in the early 1900s. Woman were hardly allowed to think for themselves, let alone become involved in a series of events requiring one of them to own and learn how to use a revolver.
When a buggy containing Constance and her sisters, Norma and Fleurette, is hit by an automobile driven by Henry Kaufman, a powerful, ruthless, and crazy factory owner, they have no idea what they are in for by simply asking him to pay for the damages he caused. Despite living far off in the country without a man to support them, a scandal in and of itself, the sisters spent the next year being tormented and threatened by Mr. Kaufman and his gangster friends. By chance, Sheriff Heath heard their plight and was the only person in law enforcement or otherwise, willing to help them and go up against a man known to set fire to the houses of people who went up against him. He gives the sisters their firearms and teaches them how to use them.
Following a lot of back and forth between the sisters and their tormentors, as well as a few side stories, such as the child Mr. Kaufman had with one of his employees being made to “disappear,” the story ends happily, as one might expect, with justice being served.
More important than the actual story is the message it conveys, which is – stand up for yourself and fight for what you believe in… no matter who you are or what is expected of you. Defy those things.
(Special thanks to my former employees for internet stalking me to discover my love of reading and purchasing this book for me as a goodbye present. There are no better gifts than books!)