Front Page Murder is the first book in the new Homefront News Mystery series by Joyce St. Anthony. I’m a huge fan of St. Anthony’s other cozy mystery series, Brewing Trouble Mysteries, (written as Joyce Tremel) so I jumped at the chance to check this new series out, even though it’s a cozy mystery set in an era I don’t think I’ve ever read before.
Title: Front Page Murder
Author: Joyce St. Anthony
Series: Homefront News Mystery #1
First Published: March 8, 2022
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Genres: Mystery,
Acquired: from the publisher via Netgalley
*** Thank you to Crooked Lane Books, for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. ***
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.
A worthy amateur detective in the making
As I mentioned in my intro, I first picked up this book because of the author (I loved her Brewing Trouble series – click here to read my review of the first book, To Brew or Not to Brew, and click here to read an interview I did with the author). But this was a historical cozy set in an era I don’t really have an interest in so I was interested to see if the author could still hold my interest.
And wow, did she ever. Irene is a very worthy protagonist and her character is what initially drew me in. Irene is running her dad’s newspaper while he’s deployed overseas as a war correspondent. The current staff (with a couple of exceptions) begrudge her youth and the fact that she’s a woman, and give her a hard time. Not only does Irene have to deal with the sexist attitude of most of her staff, she also has to manage wartime rationing, soothe her old-fashioned mother, and worry about her fiancé who has been drafted and about to be deployed. What’s a girl to do? Solve a murder mystery, of course!
I found Irene to be very competent and level-headed. She doesn’t race head-long into danger like many other cozy mystery sleuths, but she does have a natural curiosity (she is a reporter, after all!) to dig for the truth, especially when it concerns the people around her. I can almost feel her frustrations as she navigates her place in “a man’s world” and she is more than capable to take care of herself.
Set in Progress, Pennsylvania, Irene is surrounded by a very interesting cast of characters that include Irene’s best friend, Peggy, the all-male staff of the Progress Herald, the town gossip Ava Dempsey, and Irene’s future father-in-law Police Chief Walter Turner. I found the townspeople varied in age, personality and attitude and it made for a very interesting setting, plus I think it reflected a time when lots of things were changing, including women’s roles in society.
A cozy mystery full of serious themes
Along with the mysterious, glamorous new boarder that Irene’s mother has welcomed into their home, Irene must solve the mystery of the death of one of her own reporters. I found both mysteries moved along nicely, but they almost fell to the background of some heavier subjects that were brought up throughout the book.
First, there’s the backdrop of war. World War II is absolutely pervasive throughout the book, as it should be. The town (and the nation) have started rationing things like gas and sugar. There’s a huge factory in town (central to the mystery) that manufactures parts for the war. And both Peggy’s father, Pete, and her fiancé, Bill, are involved in the war effort.
Then, there’s the women’s movement. Because of the war, many women left housekeeping behind and, for the first time, took on men’s jobs, like manufacturing. There are a wide range of attitudes to this, from the women who want to work and earn a decent wage, to the people that don’t think women belong in factories and that this whole ‘equality’ movement is just ‘temporary’. The sexism is rampant, and I felt so much sympathy for the women who fought so hard just to be able to do the same jobs as their male counterparts.
And then there’s the storyline with the Jewish store-owner Sam. This is a pretty heavy arc in the book that involves a couple of the town’s Jewish members and how they may be targeted because of the war. The Japanese internment camps in the US are also mentioned.
An interesting part of the book was that each chapter started off with a newspaper headline (from the Progress Herald) that was about the war so it gave the reader a good timeline of what was happening in the world at that time.
Whew! Like, I said, there is a LOT going on in this first book and it was quite serious, although the murder and mystery solving still made it a traditional cozy that was quite enjoyable. I think it’s a great set up for a series and I’m looking forward to reading more of Irene. Her position as a journalist/editor-in-chief and her link to the Police Chief makes it easy for her to get involved and I’m interested in seeing what her next adventure will be.
For more information, visit the Joyce St. Anthony/Tremel’s website or add Front Page Murder to your Goodreads list.
Quote from Front Page Murder
