An Unlikely Prospect: A World War II Novel

For fans of Kate Quinn's The Rose Code and Jacqueline Winspear's The Consequences of Fear comes a gripping novel, set in post-WWII San Francisco, about a young female newspaper publisher and a story that could change the course of her city's future.

In the jubilant aftermath of Japan's surrender in World War II, San Francisco erupts in celebration. But for Sandy Zimmer, the thirty-two-year-old widow publisher of the Prospect newspaper, the revelry masks a darker truth. In the chaos of the VJ Day Peace Riot, eleven deaths and six rapes take place.

Driven by journalistic integrity and battling her own instincts to maintain peace, Sandy directs her paper to investigate the riot. Her quest for truth pits her against formidable adversaries: her controlling civic-leader father-in-law, the newspaper's resistant board, and authorities desperate to bury the scandal as they vie to attract the United Nations Headquarters to San Francisco.

Based on little-known historical events, An Unlikely Prospect follows Sandy's fight to find her voice in the male-dominated world of 1945 journalism. As she navigates power dynamics, gender roles, and the steep price of printing the truth, Sandy must confront her own transformation from a people-pleasing widow into a determined publisher willing to challenge the status quo.

Author: Shelley Blanton-Stroud
Publisher: She Writes Press
Published: 08/19/2025
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781647429461


Review Citation(s):
Foreword 02/17/2025
Kirkus Reviews 04/01/2025
PW Booklife Reviews 06/09/2025

About the Author
Shelley Blanton-Stroud grew up in California's Central Valley, the daughter of Dust Bowl immigrants who made good on their ambition to get out of the field. Recently retired from teaching writing in Northern California, she continues to consult with writers in the energy industry. She has served as President of the Board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative writing nonprofit for children, and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies at Claremont McKenna College. She previously co-directed Stories on Stage Sacramento, where actors perform the stories of established and emerging authors. Her historical mystery series--Copy Boy, Tomboy, and Poster Girl--follows Jane Benjamin, a cross-dressing, tomato-picking, San Francisco gossip columnist who investigates crime stories that never make the front page in 1930s and '40s Northern California. Her fourth novel, An Unlikely Prospect, features a new protagonist in the same world. She and her husband live in Sacramento, California.