The Jazz Club Spy

 by Roberta Rich

This is the story of a Russian emigrant to the U.S.  Members of her family were killed by cossacks in Russia and her mother was raped by one of the cossacks.  The family fled to the U.S.  The main character Giddy is working as a cigarette girl in a club but longs to open her own custom makeup store.  

One day while she is riding a bus she sees a man she thinks was the cossack who tried to kill her.  She wants revenge.  She goes to the immigration office at Ellis Island? and meets an immigration official.  When she tells the man who she thinks this man is he agrees to do some checking into records as the cossacks are not desirable immigrants.

They are able to identify the name of the man and the girl is "hired" by the official to try to track the man down as they think he may be involved in some political activities.  The girl is able to find him, even though a detective has not been able to do so.  The girl eventually meets the man's pregnant wife, they already have one child.

The man finds out she is looking for him and breaks into her home one night.  He tells her he is not the one who raped her mother or killed her family members.  She doesn't know whether to believe him or not.  She does find out that he may be involved in a plot to kill a Soviet official who is scheduled to come to the U.S.  With the money she receives from the U.S. official the girl is able to open her shop.

The girl and the government official start having an affair and the girl becomes pregnant.  The official wants her to have an abortion and he agrees to pay for it.  The girl insists she wants to meet a different govt official. Her lover tells her the man is not to be trusted but agees to introduce them at the man's summer home, while she is recovering from her abortion.  She had hoped the man would marry her but finds out he is already married with a family.

The story then takes several twists.  The girl meets her father who was kicked out by her mother.  She finds out that her sister didn't die in Russia but was rather "sold" to a local rich person.  She finds out her younger brother who she has great hopes for is actually a product of her mother's rape.  He overhears the conversation and it helps everyone understand why the mother was so finding it so hard to love him.  It turns out the govt official is actually a fascist and anti-semite who is hiring the Russian cossack to kill the soviet visitor.  The girl is of course shocked at this news and risks her life to thwart the plot.  

It was an interesting story that kept you wondering what was going on.  The author is a BC writer.