Pen Pals

Jennifer works on Wall Street, a woman who has built a successful career in a field dominated by men. When her boss is caught breaking the rules and the SEC closes in, she agrees to take the blame. Her fiance is a lawyer with the connections to get her off, so the risk seems small.

The plan fails. Jennifer is sent to Jennings Correctional Facility for Women, where life is far rougher than anything she met in the trading world. She waits for the rescue her fiance promised, and it does not arrive.

Inside, she meets a group of sharp, tough women. Movita leads the work crew, Cher is unpredictable, Theresa stays stubbornly hopeful, and Suki is the youngest-seeming charmer of the bunch. Their company gives the prison its lively, comic edge.

Then Movita makes Jennifer an offer she cannot refuse. What it costs her is the question that drives the story from there.

The book mixes a workplace crime plot with an ensemble prison setting, and its tone leans toward the humorous and brisk rather than the grim.