Wild Women and the Blue by Denny S. Bryce

Film student Sawyer Hayes is struggling. A devastating personal loss has put his professional dreams on hold as he tries to figure out how to move on. Items from the “long ago box,” as he refers to the storage bin in his grandmother’s attic, may be just the catalyst he needs as he searches for the missing pieces to finish his doctoral thesis on legendary black film maker Oscar Micheaux.

But that all hinges on the cooperation of 110-year-old Miss Honoree Dalcour, the only person alive who can fill in the gaping hole in his project, and she is just a little stubborn, to say the least. When Hayes approaches Dalcour with photos from what he believes is her past, she is less than willing to tell her story – at least not without Hayes sharing his. And that is something he does not want to do at all.

The story unfolds as we jump between Dalcour’s life in 1925 Chicago and Hayes’s conversations with her in 2015. As he tries to unravel Dalcour’s past as a chorus girl in the land of bootlegging, gambling, and gangsters in an attempt to connect her to Micheaux and finish his thesis, he comes face-to-face with the ghosts of his own life. Dalcour seems to be dealing with ghosts of her own. Somewhere in her ramblings lies a truth that they both need to accept to move on with their lives.

This is Bryce’s debut novel, and historical fiction fans will find her foray into the Turbulent ‘20s immersive and intriguing. The entanglement of past meets present is riveting and will keep you turning the pages for more. Though Miss Honoree Dalcour is not a real person, many of the places and events in this story are real, and the novel gives a good, hard look at the Chicago of the 1920s. Fans of Fiona Davis should definitely check out this new addition at the Martinsburg Community Library.