This mystery is fresh and original and invokes the era of victory gardens, rationing, scrap metal drives and the music, fashion, movies and values of WWII 1940’s America. Set in Progress, a prosperous town with its own local newspaper the story is told from the perspective of Irene, acting editor-in-chief replacing her dad who is serving on the Pacific front. Irene was formerly limited to the women’s page but is running the paper following local stories and war news while managing staff and editing the paper. A series of anti-Semitic attacks and vandalism against shop owner and neighbors, is big local news which exposes the divisions between supporters of the war and those sympathetic to the Third Reich. That story overlaps another when her best investigative reporter takes off to follow up on a secret lead and is found dead, days later at the bottom of his cellar stairs. Meanwhile her mother rents a room to a young mysterious NYC singer Katherine who moves to town to work in the local Ironworks factory just re-tooled to produce massive quantities of parts for tanks, airplanes etc.
Irene finds a note which casts doubt that Moe’s death was accidental and tries to discover what story he was chasing but comes up with no real leads. Meanwhile several news events at the ironworks factory keep Irene busy doing interviews with the owner and his new manager on the grand opening of the new production lines. She meets Moe’s girlfriend who also works at the ironworks factory and then concocts a human-interest article about the women working at the factory so she can gain access again and befriend people working there. After a Jewish janitor is seriously injured at the ironworks she feels compelled to find out if it was intentional accident and is rebuffed in an interview with the owner. Then another death occurs at the factory, an apparent suicide and Irene is even more determined to find out what is going on.
When Irene and Peggy, her friend and the administrator at the paper, finally find Moe’s hidden notes they begin to get to the solution to the mystery. The notations might indicate shifts and product lines at the factory but what do the other numbers and letters mean? The answers might explain the reason behind the accidents at the factory and the story Moe was pursuing. When Irene decides to trust Katherine in spite of her suspicions and the pieces start to come together in this complex, plausible plot.
This was an enjoyable read with a different more interesting story line than from the typical smalltown mystery. The middle-class American perspective was nostalgic and the dialog and activities of Irene, her family and friends and neighbors reminiscent of a 1940’s black and white movie movie with a bit appearance by Frank Sintra who also figures in the story. The pace was a little slow at times and though I suspected the culprit early on the back story and motivations are a whole story in itself and very well could have happened.
I rate this mystery 5 WWII Headlines using elements from the book!
Plot: *****
Characters: ****
Setting: *****
Romance: *
Humor: ***
Social themes: ****
