“The Women in Black”

The Women in Black

-Madeleine St. John

Five women working in an Australian department store, who have to wear black uniform frocks. Sounds intriguing, right? I thought so too...my enthusiasm was short lived. It felt like I walked into the middle of a movie and missed some of the backstory. The principal characters were connected by their jobs and little else. It wasn’t until I read some of the Book Club notes at the end that I learned the story was set in the 1950s. That helped, but not enough. St. John left too many loose ends for my taste...her novel needed an epilogue showing what happened to the characters. Pregnant? College? Marriage? Continentals? Ladies Cocktail Frocks? Arghhh, I so wanted to fall in love with this book.