Review - Front Page Murder

Today we are checking out a brand new historical cozy mystery series. One of my favorite eras for historical books is the World War II time period and this book puts us in small town America during the war.  I had to check it out.

Author: Joyce St. Anthony

Copyright: March 2022 (Crooked Lane Books) 300 pgs

Series: 1st in Homefront News Mysteries

Sensuality: n/a

Mystery Sub-genre: Historical Cozy

Main Characters: Irene Ingram, Acting Editor-in-Chief of Progress Herald

Setting: WWII era, small town Progress Pennsylvania

Obtained Through: Publisher for honest review, Netgalley

Book Blurb:   "Irene Ingram has written for her father’s newspaper, the Progress Herald, ever since she could grasp a pencil. Now she’s editor in chief, which doesn’t sit well with the men in the newsroom. But proving her journalistic bona fides is the least of Irene’s worries when crime reporter Moe Bauer, on the heels of a hot tip, turns up dead at the foot of his cellar stairs.

 An accident? That’s what Police Chief Walt Turner thinks, and Irene is inclined to agree until she finds the note Moe discreetly left on her desk. He was on to a big story, he wrote. The robbery she’d assigned him to cover at Markowicz Hardware turned out to be something far more devious. A Jewish store owner in a small, provincial town, Sam Markowicz received a terrifying message from a stranger. Moe suspected that Sam is being threatened not only for who he is…but for what he knows.

 Tenacious Irene senses there’s more to the Markowicz story, which she is all but certain led to Moe’s murder. When she’s not filling up column inches with the usual small-town fare—locals in uniform, victory gardens, and scrap drives—she and her best friend, scrappy secretary Peggy Reardon, search for clues. If they can find the killer, it’ll be a scoop to stop the presses. But if they can’t, Irene and Peggy may face an all-too-literal deadline." 

My Thoughts:   The characters range from Irene Ingram, a very capable acting-editor for the town paper facing the men challenging her leadership, her best friend Peggy Reardon encouraging her, her fiance's father is the police chief and genuinly likes her, and her mother's boarder Katherine Morningside who looks like a movie star and works in the factory.  The townspeople and main characters were all believeable and well drawn.  I felt the character of the town with its good folks and prejudice ones.  I loved how the era was brought to life with loved ones off fighting the war, rationing begining, and victory gardens etc.

The mystery got hold of me and the plot and pacing had me eager to read.  The climatic killer reveal was dramatic and tense just as I love it. This new series has me hooked and I highly recommend to fans of historical mysteries. A great addition to the historical cozy genre that I am eager to read the next in the series.  

Rating:  Near Perfect - Buy two copies: one for you and one for a friend.