Death on a deadline

It's the summer of 1942 in St. Anthony's enjoyable sequel to Front Page Murder, and 22-year-old Irene Ingram continues to act as editor-in-chief of the Progress Herald in Progress, Pa., in place of her father while he serves as a war correspondent in the Pacific. Hollywood is leading the war bond effort, and residents of Progress are abuzz about a group of actors coming to the town fair to help sell bonds. One starlet is hometown girl Angela Harrison, who's estranged from her roguish husband, B-movie star Freddie, who's also on the tour. When Freddie turns up dead and rumors of a secret black book he had are whispered about, Irene sets out to discover the truth of what happened. Multiple suspects and complications, including a second murder, keep the pages turning. St. Anthony does a fine job bringing the period and place to life while taking care to develop secondary characters likely to play roles in future installments. The identity of the culprit comes as a real surprise. Readers will hope to see a lot more of Irene and friends. Agent: Melissa Jeglinski, Knight Agency. (Nov.)

Newspaper editor Irene Ingram has barely recovered from her near-fatal involvement in helping solve a murder when death arrives again. Irene is running her father's paper, the Progress Herald, while he's serving as a war correspondent and her fiance is in training for service in World War II. The biggest news in the small town of Progress, Pennsylvania, is the arrival of Hollywood stars for the war bond drive. Hairdresser Ava Dempsey, whose sister, a minor movie actress, claims to know all the latest gossip, announces that they can expect Clark Gable. Ava's beautiful sister, Angela, is at odds with her actor husband, Freddie Harrison, whose claims of undying love are undermined by his numerous affairs. The death of a neighbor's son brings the war close to home and makes the locals more eager to buy war bonds even though the closest they come to Gable is a series of minor players like Angela, Freddie, and Kirk Allen, who's become virtually unrecognizable as the former Eugene Allen since he left town and morphed into a handsome man set on an acting career. When Freddie turns up dead in the dunk tank at the local carnival, Irene jumps in to help her future father-in-law, Police Chief Walter Turner. Angela, who threatened her cheating husband, is an obvious suspect, but so are many of the other performers who were less than fond of Freddie. Freddie's little black book, which contains code names and sums for people he was blackmailing, opens up a new and dangerous line of inquiry. A warmhearted tale of a small-town attempt to aid the war effort, complicated by greed, jealousy, and murder. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.