Dressmaker’s Alley—Danger lurks!

Dangerous Times on Dressmakers' Alley by Rosie Clarke     

⭐️⭐️⭐️

A relatively interesting story set in the early 1920’s referencing the women’s suffragette movement, sweatshop working conditions for seamstresses, and women being trafficked.

Winnie Brown, who’s part of the freedom movement, decides to look at the happenings at Madame Pauline’s, a shonky dress production establishment that treats its seamstresses abominably, on Dressmaker’s Alley in London’s East End. The women are given pittance wages, a 10-12 hour working day, no lunch break and short, infrequent toilet times. They are bullied and harassed.

Then there’s the stairs that lead to the closed off attic. 

It’s in this area she meets Sam Collins, a cobbler with his own shop nearby. Sam’s sister Susie, as it happens, is the Dresser and personal maid to Lady Dianne Cooper, husband to Sir Henry Cooper. Sir Henry it appears owns the building where Madame Pauline’s is housed. He is completely unaware of anything untoward occurring there. 

There’s a whole lot of coincidences that produce a set of seemingly intertwined situations. Maybe too many coincidences. They make the plot seem just too pat.

A clean romance with more than threatening overtones, exposing the hardships of the time, that women particularly faced.

A Boldwood Books ARC via NetGalley.                                              

Many thanks to the author and publisher.