The Coach House

This book has the flavor of being based a lot on real lives as they intertwined in Chicago in the early part of the 1900s.

The book opens in 1945, when the still-in-her-teens Marie Costa employed by Marshall Fields department store. An orphan with a lot of gumption, she works hard and progresses through the ranks to become a buyer. As she’s decorating a window for Christmas, Richard Marchetti, a young man on the sidewalk, observes her and decides she’ll be his wife. A year later, they’re wed.

He’s a real go-getter and throws money around like it was water – nothing is too good for his wife, although he tends to ignore his own family, which lives downstate. Unfortunately, not all his money comes from legal means, and when Marie stumbles on a meeting in their kitchen, she is frightened enough by his reaction to leave. Now.

Marie ends up in Atchinson, Kansas, where she finds friends, a home, a job, and a family she hadn’t previously known about. This information infuriates Richard, who refuses to leave her alone.

The Coach House is a well-written saga that obviously required a ton of research for all the details it includes. I was a tad bothered by some of the anachronisms, but not enough to turn me away from the author’s compelling style. I’d happily recommend this book to any reader.