Rocket Girl by Diane Vallere a Review

 

Rocket Girl by Diane Vallere

The Short Story: A super blend of historical fiction and murder mystery

It’s 1961 and Kick Johnson, a young woman, recently widowed, is left with a mortgage and a car payment, and is in desperate need of a job. Despite her lackluster skills, she applies for a secretarial position at the Center for Rocket Science Research and to her delight, gets hired as a math aide doing research for NASA and the space program. Unfortunately. on her first day of work, she all but trips over a dead body, that of an engineer, but one she recognizes under puzzling circumstances. Of course, she has to investigate!

I really enjoyed this book, part murder mystery, part historical fiction, and part women’s fiction. The book is set in the 1960s Dallas and the space race has reached a fevered pitch. It has a Hidden Figure’s vibe as women do the grunt work of working out highly complex equations for the engineers. I thought the author nailed the setting right, the social norms and attitudes of the era, and it’s clear that a ton of research went into this book.

I loved the MC,  Kick Johnson. She’s the right amount of spunk, while still fitting in with her time. After her brief marriage, she comes to realize it was not really what she wanted. She’s slowly learning who she is, what she wants from life and love and how to reach her goals. She has to fight the suffocating expectations of women and push through the barriers erected to keep them boxed in, while blazing her own trail. It’s almost like a coming-of-age story for her.

I highly recommend this book to lovers of historical fiction and historical mysteries. I look forward to the next book in the series.

I give this book ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐stars