Review: "Bachelor Girl" by Kim van Alkemade

Author Kim van Alkemade has used an unsolved mystery concerning Colonel Jacob Ruppert, millionaire owner of the New York Yankees who passed in 1939, and Helen Winthrope Weyant, a little known showgirl from Broadway, to weave an electrifying account of why he would leave her the $300,000 and a third of his estate. Although fiction, it is well written and believable. The story revolves around Jacob, Helen and Albert Kramer, the personal secretary to Jacob. Their lives are fleshed out and you are drawn into the drama.

Each chapter is told in the first person by either Helen or Albert. This method allows the author to fill in the background of each character and build a story that grips the reader and compels them to keep reading. It begins in 1918 when they meet and continues as their lives are entwined with Ruppert’s. Both Helen and Albert assume they know the answer to why Jacob acts as he does and doesn’t question the results until Helen is made an heiress.

I enjoyed this story and couldn’t put it down. The plot is well thought out and has surprising twists and turns. You think you know the ending but it isn’t as it seems. Because of the adult nature of the story line, I recommend this for mature audiences. If you love historical fiction, sprinkled with fact and fiction, this book is for you.