Front Page Murder is set during WWII, when the men young and able joined the war effort and the women stayed behind and did their jobs. Irene Ingram is such a woman: she took over as editor-in-chief of the Progress Herald when her father decided to become a war correspondent (it seems he managed to become embedded).

Of the men that stayed behind at the paper 4 out of 5 take some form of issue that a woman in her early twenties is now their boss. One of them is Irene’s cousin Donny who works at the paper to layout the pages. He wants to become a reporter, even asks (almost begs) Irene for an upgrade to that position. When she turns him down, he insults her and says it’s because she is jealous of his talent.

Another is top reporter Moses “Moe” Bauer. Who calls her “doll” and chases after hot tips without telling her what story he is chasing and occasionally without doing the story he is assigned to do. It’s after one such disappearing act that Irene goes to Moe’s house in a quest to find her missing reporter. And finds him at the bottom of his cellar stairs.

The coroner rules it an accident and the chief of police (Irene’s future father-in-law) sees no reason to investigate. Not even after Irene brings him a note left by Moe in which he claims that if he gets killed it is no accident. Frustrated that the police will not investigate based on a note, Irene decides to investigate herself because Moe’s murderer must be brought to justice.

Though I liked the story for the most part, there were things that irked me, such as the conclusion Irene jumped to right there. Despite Moe’s note, it is still possible his death was an accident. Moe’s claim that his death would not be an accident, however, is worth an investigation. What was that story he was working on? As a reporter, Irene should want that story, whether Moe was killed or not.

But she’s young; she probably still has to hone her journalistic nose for a good story. She has a lot of “I should have thought of that moments” and they’re all related to things a reported could have (should have) thought of. Strangely, none are related to running a news paper and it seems she has less experience in that than in reporting.

The scene setting for WWII era is great, but the story couldn’t hold my attention on quite a number of occasions. I guess the urgency of something is going on a Tabor factory wasn’t transferred very well.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.