“The Girl from the Papers” by Jennifer L. Wright … and a GIVEAWAY!

Welcome to Friday Reads!

 

 

You can enter to win a print copy of The Girl from the Papers by Jennifer L. Wright, courtesy of the publisher. (US ONLY!) You can enter by using the Rafflecopter link at the bottom of this post. (Contest ends August 18, 2023.) Share on X If you’re the chosen winner, I’ll contact you for your information to pass along.

 

About the book…

Inspired by one of America’s most notorious couples, Bonnie and Clyde, Jennifer L. Wright delivers a riveting tale set during the public enemy era of the Great Depression.

Beatrice Carraway has dreams. Although she’s aged out of the childhood pageant circuit, she’s intent on carrying her talents all the way to the big screen—if only she can escape the poverty of West Dallas first. But as the Great Depression drags the working class further and further under, Beatrice struggles just to keep herself, her mother, and her younger sister afloat. After a string of failed auditions, she feels defeated.

And then in walks Jack Turner. Though Beatrice is determined to pull herself up by her bootstraps, Jack has decided on a different path out of the gutters. It isn’t long before Beatrice is swept into an exciting and glamorous life of crime beside the man she loves. Keeping one step ahead of the law, she sees her dreams of fame come true when her name and picture are plastered in newspapers across the country. Yet as their infamy grows, the distance between them widens. While Jack begins seeking bigger payouts and publicity, Beatrice starts to long for a safe, quiet life and something deeper to fill the emptiness in her soul. But when the danger of Jack’s schemes ratchets up, Beatrice fears her dreams—and her future—will end up going down in a hail of bullets.

 

Amazon purchase link

 

Celebrity Criminals

By Jennifer L. Wright

Picture, if you can, life in 1930s America. The effects of the stock market crash of 1929 continue to linger, months and years after that initial “Black Tuesday.” Thousands upon thousands have lost their jobs. Those lucky few who have managed to hold on to theirs have had their wages cut drastically. Hundreds of banks have shuttered, taking with them the life savings of people who no longer know how they are going to survive. Even with bread lines wrapping around the block, the grumble of stomachs can never quite be silenced. Times are, for lack of a better word, tough.

For most people.

Because even in the face of widespread poverty, there are still some whose fortune has gone untouched, whose prosperity has increased, and whose wealth has gone unabated. While millions of Americans struggle to find their next meal, a sizable percentage carry on about their lives as if nothing has changed.

Though the United States has always had a complicated history with the poor, there was, perhaps, no starker contrast between the “haves” and the “have-nots” than during the early years of the Great Depression. And it was those disparities that led to a unique “period within a period” known as the public enemy era.

Beginning in 1930, outlaws began to rampage across the country, with reports of daring robberies and brazen kidnappings becoming daily front-page staples. Though opinions vary on whether the crime wave was the cause or the result of an increase in their publicity, names such as Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, John Dillinger, and Bonnie and Clyde were soon on par with the day’s most famous movie stars.

But, more than just fascination, there was a certain level of adoration from the public toward these “celebrity criminals.” Fed up with the cycle of poverty, inept government assistance, and an unfair economic imbalance throughout the country, regular citizens began to view banks, big businesses, and government officials as the enemy. Police may have called people like Al Capone or Ma Barker criminals, but to many, they and others like them were heroes. They were viewed as modern-day Robin Hoods, stealing from the rich at the behest of the poor. And the American people were living vicariously through them, devouring every photo and newspaper article they could get their hands on. 

It was clear the government, as well as local law enforcement, had a real problem on their hands. When it came to apprehending these criminals, public sentiment was not in their favor, despite many of the biggest names of the time having graduated from mere robbery to cold-blooded murder. There was no shortage of places to hide or people to conceal them. In addition, at this time, local police forces were prohibited from crossing states lines. All Bonnie and Clyde had to do, for example, was cross from Texas (where the majority of their crimes took place) into Oklahoma to shake police off their trail.

Enter J. Edgar Hoover and the Bureau of Investigation (later to be known as the FBI).

Hoover had long advocated for a “national police force” whose jurisdiction would supersede county and state boundaries when it came to catching criminals. The seemingly unstoppable crime wave of the early 1930s gave him his chance. He created the famous “public enemies” list, which served to remind people about the horrific reality behind these celebrities’ perceived allure. And, although many have called Hoover’s methods into question, the fact remains that, by 1935, nearly every single person on his list was either dead or in prison.

 The public enemy era was over.

Or was it?

Although the big-name gangsters and romantic outlaws of the Great Depression are gone, public fascination over them has never really gone away. For example, the gravesites of both Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow still receive thousands of visitors every year. The car in which they were killed is on display at a casino in Nevada and continues to be one of the location’s biggest draws. And their story has inspired dozens of movies and countless books, including my newest novel, The Girl from the Papers, which is a fictional account based loosely on their lives.

But it isn’t just these old-time criminals that continue to hold the public’s attention. The genre of “true crime” has exploded in recent years, with new celebrity lawbreakers grabbing headlines—as well as podcast episodes and Netflix documentaries—every few months.

So what is it about these people and their deeds we find so intriguing? I believe the roots of this captivation run deep and speak to the sin nature inherent in all of us. In the lives of celebrity criminals, we witness the effects of a brokenness that lives inside the heart of every human. We see sinful people—just like us—who made the decision to act upon that brokenness, often destroying their lives and the lives of others. For me, reading or listening to stories about true crime brings me face to face with my own sinfulness . . . and makes me ever more grateful for my Savior, whose grace alone has provided any good that might be evident in my life.

 

About Jennifer…

 

Jennifer L. Wright has been writing since middle school, eventually earning a master’s degree in journalism at Indiana University. However, it took only a few short months of covering the local news for her to realize that writing fiction is much better for the soul and definitely way more fun. A born and bred Hoosier, she was plucked from the Heartland after being swept off her feet by an Air Force pilot and has spent the past decade traveling the world and, every few years, attempting to make old curtains fit in the windows of a new home. She currently resides in New Mexico with her husband, two children, one grumpy old dachshund, and her newest obsession—a guinea pig named Peanut Butter Cup.

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