Thank you to Phyllis Karas, New York Times best selling author of the book  Brutal: The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger’s Irish Mob and over ten other books as well as a journalist and professor of journalism.

She who wrote this wonderful review of The Women Before Us:

How wonderful to read a historically accurate female driven story that is also charming and intriguing. Cohen creates such a warm and fascinating story of the women who lived such intriguing lives so many years before us. From her first chapter, I was swept into the story and loved getting to know each and every woman Cohen so beautifully describes. She tells such a warm and touching story of each woman that I could easily have read another 100 pages. I can hardly wait for Cohen‘s next delightful historical novel that not only entertains me, but actually educates me of a fascinating time long gone!

Karas’ most recent book is Curse of the Blumenthals, a fascinating exploration of her own family and its history. As described on her website, Curse tells “the history of one close-knit New England-based, Jewish American family and their dark relationship with alcohol, from bootlegging arrests in 1920s Providence, a drunk driver killing six members of their family in 1935, the 1954 murder of a Boston seamstress committed by teenager Ronnie Blumenthal, to Ronnie’s death and burial in 2012 in an unmarked pauper’s grave, ending the curse.” You can purchase Curse of the Blumenthals here.

I had the great pleasure of helping Phyllis with some of her research. She found me through this blog where I wrote that her cousin Ronnie had initially confessed and bragged about his killing of Orna Schornath to my cousin Lois Kane. It was Lois’ brave decision to go to the police that broke the murder investigation wide open.

I highly recommend that you read Curse of the Blumenthals. It is a well-crafted and insightful mix of a true crime story, a revealing look at the history of a tight-knit Jewish family, and the author’s personal reflections on how we face the hard truths about the people we love the most.

And please, of course, I hope you will also read The Women Before Us, which is available here on Amazon.