Ruthie

On the first day of 1930, a young single woman from Iowa took the train to Denver for a

job as a church schoolteacher. Each day for six months, Ruthie recorded her life in a

Milestone diary - capturing the sweet spot in Denver history between the Stock Market

crash and the Great Depression. This book is a work of historical fiction weaving

together factual diary entries with the fictional story of love, lies, deception and murder.

In Denver, Ruthie waits every day for another letter from Walter, the farmer boyfriend

she left behind, who pleads for her return. She becomes friends with Rose, an aging

flapper; is pursued by investigative reporter Buckshot; falls under the influence of

manipulative school principal Mr. Keul; becomes a reclamation project of society woman

Mrs. Press; and attempts to tame Mary Helen, her most stubborn student.

As a novice teacher, Ruthie deals with self-doubt, homesickness, and temptations. She

struggles with an anger inherited from her alcoholic father and critical mother. On the

dark streets of Denver, she carries a straight razor and a revulsion for the skid row

bums who remind her of her father. In Denver, nothing is what it seems. Most of all

Ruthie.