MURDER, SHE REPORTED
Peg Cochran
Random House Alibi
July 31, 2018
Elizabeth Adams is 22, a graduate of Wellesley, and made her Society Debut at the Waldorf. Her cautious father managed to keep the family money mostly intact, so they haven't suffered as others have in the Great Depression. She also aspires to be a professional photographer and has taken a job at the NY Trumpet. So far, she has been relegated to "girl Friday" duties for the snooty Society Editor. No one at the paper knows about her background, and she hasn't told her friends. Her mother is horrified and her distant father, bemused. Things start to change when the scruffy veteran reporter, Kaminsky, asks if she knows how to use a camera. He needs a photographer to cover the coming-out ball for Gloria DeWitt, the "it-girl" debutante of 1938. When a murder takes place at the ball, Elizabeth is in the thick of things. Gloria DeWitt is a suspect, and due to an unfortunate photograph Elizabeth took, she threatens to have Elizabeth ostracized in society. Elizabeth may want a different life but is not ready to lose her friends.
Kaminsky likes Elizabeth's photos and attitude, taking her under his wing and even giving her a nickname, "Biz." Biz may have lived in Manhattan all her life, but the story takes her into places she has never seen, from Mulberry Street to the Aqueduct Racecourse, and into seamier areas of the city. She visits long-forgotten establishments like Horn and Hardart and even tastes her first Italian food, courtesy of handsome police detective, Sal Marino. Biz is naive but approaches everything with an open heart and mind. No doubt her childhood case of polio contributed to her attitude. She escaped with only a slight limp but made friends of all backgrounds during her extended hospitalization. Biz knows what is really important in life, making her a very likable heroine.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Alibi for an advance digital copy. The opinions are my own.
RATING- 4 Stars
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