Hartford Wicked — Gloria H. Giroux

1973. The Vietnam War ended. Richard Nixon began his second term as President of the United States. The Watergate Hearings splashed across TV screens for months foreshadowing the downfall of a tumultuous administration. OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, imposed an oil embargo that led to a sharp increase in gasoline prices and to Congress changing the national speed limit to 55mph, AKA “double nickels.”

The Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade changed the face of women's rights in controlling their own bodies. And in Hartford, the capital city of Connecticut, a talented young cat burglar is enjoying her profession and making a good living. She has no idea of the upheavals in her life that are simmering on the horizon. The first is a favor for a high-level mobster. A simple theft, it turns into a night of terror that has far-reaching consequences. At the same time her personal life is upended by familial twists that come out of left field and cause her to re-examine her values, life directions, emotional expectations,
and what defines family.

As she tries to navigate the twists and turns her life has taken and the unexpected choices she has to make she finds herself being dogged by a tenacious police detective, a determined killer, and the mobster that set her on a perilous course. Fleeing from attempts on her life she changes her name and builds a new life elsewhere. But the past has a way of catching up with you, and her past is closing in fast and furious…