The narrator of the wonderfully crafted story, "The Other Typist" by Suzanne Rendell, is a plain Jane sort of a single girl, Rose, who grew up in an orphanage and was raised by nuns. You might think this is as dull as it gets, but this debut novel by Suzanne Rendell kept me turning pages (on the Nook) well into the night.

Rose is a shy, morally upright young woman who is employed as a typist for a police precinct in New York in the 1920s. She is one who has all her I's dotted and T's crossed and is extremely proud of the fact she can type 160 words per minute.

The closest she gets to adventure in her life is when she sits in on a criminal's confession as a typist, capturing every word of the confession on her stenotype.

She is painfully aware that her life is a lonely one. Underlying her desire to be needed and appreciated at her job is the desire to be needed and appreciated by someone special in her life-someone who can fill the void left by dead parents, no siblings, and the absence of a dear friend, Adele.

This all changes when the precinct hires another typist, Odalie.

Odalie is the personification of the new modern woman of the 1920s, and is everything that Rose is not. She is beautiful, charming and has a mesmerizing way about her. Rose falls under her spell and soon becomes a "bosom buddy" of Odalie's.

Rose is taken to secret speakeasies, clubs and parties flowing with champagne, music and the Charleston.

As Rose gets to know Odalie's friends, several versions of Odalie's life story begin to unfold to Rose; there has to be an explanation for how Odalie has so much money to spend on herself and also on Rose.

The intrigue spins itself out seamlessly, and the story as it is narrated by Rose entices the reader with clues and warnings that all is not as it should be. Something big and disastrous is looming ahead.

Things come to a tipping point when Rose and Odalie get themselves invited to a lavish Gatsby-like party on Long Island and meet a young man named Teddy. There more clues are revealed about Odalie and her past, and a secret is revealed to Rose that is as she calls it, "a fork in the road."

"The Other Typist" is going to be made into a movie. This novel is available at the Loveland Public library as an eBook, already downloaded on one of our Literary Fiction Nooks. Nook eReaders preloaded with several titles are available for checkout.