"A wonderful combination of love and crime ~ very realistic."

Lizzie Conway has been trying to make life better for herself and her three daughters since her husband Frank left them to fight in the war at Flanders. It hasn't been easy and her struggle has brought them to 10 Lavender Court in Gorbals outside of Glasgow, the best tenement they have lived in. Now she is beginning to think about something other than making sure her daughters are protected and keep their self-respect. She is thinking about a husband and the rent collector seems to be just what she is looking for. She knows Bernard Peabody is younger than she is, he lives with his mother in a cottage in another part of Glasgow, and he is a hard worker. She is still paying on a debt that her husband left owing the Manone family. This fact keeps her from feeling obligated to Dominic Manone for helping Polly and Babs get jobs. Polly works at the Burgh Hall and Babs works at Central Warehouse Company owned by Dominic. Her youngest daughter Rosie, who has a problem hearing goes to the deaf school and is not a problem right now.

Polly is interested in Patsy Walsh and Babs is interested in Jackie Hallop. Both of these men have ties to Dominic Manone, who has illegal businesses in the area. Patsy and Jackie become involved in a scheme to steal the safe at the Warehouse and ask Babs to give them the information they need. Babs agrees, only because they offer her a hundred pounds. The robbery is a failure and Dominic, knowing it is an inside job, questions Babs. Babs tells Dominic she will furnish the information, but will not tell him who the men are. When one of Dominic's men come to their tenement and threatens them, Bernard shows them another side of himself.

Polly and Dominic are drawn together by circumstances surrounding the attempted robbery. Polly does not know whether she likes what is happening between them, but Dominic is sure he does. His only problem comes from his uncle Guido and aunt Theresa because Polly is not Italian. While Dominic is courting Polly, she is busy getting Patsy out of the country before something can happen to him. Lizzie is also unhappy with Polly seeing Dominic because she has tried to keep her daughters from men like their father. Now she has to think about what will make them happy.

PRIZED POSSESSIONS combines love and crime in a way that makes this a very good story. The relationship between Lizzie and her daughters gives the reader a look at a mother's love. The characters that are involved in the element of crime are made human by the author. Polly and Dominic's characters are made real because of the decisions they face to make their relationship work. I liked this story because it gives a realistic look at life in the tenements of Glasgow in the 1930s.

Hattie Boyd for Heart Rate Reviews

Reviewed by Guest Reviewer
Courtesy Heart Rate Reviews
Posted September 23, 2001

Summary

Lizzie Conway has clawed her way out of the Gorbals slums despite a crippling burden of debt left by her husband. She would do anything to protect her daughters from the violence of Glasgow's mean streets. To give them a better life, Lizzie sacrifices her own chance at happiness to break the endless round of poverty that engulfs them. But now the girls are grown: Polly has a secure post with the borough council, Babs is a clerk, and even Rosie, whose life is marred by deafness, is set to find work that suits her talents. Lizzie soon discovers that her strength and determination are not enough to protect her girls from falling in love with men as tough and feckless as their father. Yet Lizzie is a fighter to the bitter end-and so, as she learns, are her daughters. Jessica Stirling brings Glasgow of the 1930s to vivid, vibrant life in this unforgettable story of an indomitable family of women.