Girl Waits with Gun | Kopp Sisters Series | Amy Stewart

I stumbled across this series at the library but since then I've seen it written up in "books to check out" kind of lists in more than one place. The Kopp sisters really existed at the turn of the 20th century in New Jersey. The stories are built around the true story of Constance Kopp, one of America's first female deputy sheriffs, and her intrepid sisters who are colorful in their own way. You also get a feel for the kind of journalism that was common at the time, which is either calming or depressing, depending on your mood. The stories are based on actual cases as reported in local and sometimes national media (the headlines are real, which is funny based on modern journalistic standards) and obviously fictionalized to fill out the story. I think the first three are the best, but that's just my opinion.

From Amy Stewart's website: Amy Stewart is the New York Times best-selling author of the The Tree Collectors, The Drunken Botanist, Wicked Plants, and several other popular nonfiction titles about the natural world. She’s also written several novels in her beloved Kopp Sisters series, which are based on the true story of one of America’s first female deputy sheriffs and her two rambunctious sisters. Her books have sold over a million copies worldwide and have been translated into 18 languages.

She lives in Portland with her husband Scott Brown, a rare book dealer who can usually be found at his shop, Downtown Brown Books.