Speak Easy
A Kate March Mystery
by Lori Adams
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Pub Date Dec 04 2021 | Archive Date Feb 19 2022
Spyhop Publishing | Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles
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Description
★Nominate for LibraryReads List★
#1 Teen & Young Adult Careers, Fiction
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#1 Teen & Young Adult US 20th Century Historical Fiction Books
#1 Teen & Young Adult Civi & Human Rights Issues
“This sparkling series starter delivers a confounding mystery, authentic historical details, and a spirited journalist . . . wonderfully cinematic scenes that vividly evoke Roaring ‘20s Hollywood. The mystery itself is complex and satisfyingly resolved.”
—Kirkus Reviews
The Roaring Twenties. A ghastly murder. A failing family newspaper business. What more could lure Katharine Ann March into playing hooky and risk missing her own high school graduation?
As a budding reporter and amateur slew, Kate has the audacity to, not only wear boy’s clothing, but to trespass into the male habitat of the newspaper business. While her best friend, Addy, prefers they go Modern by becoming flappers, Kate set her sights on saving the family newspaper by plunging headfirst into the most sensational murder scene in Hollywood history.
Famed film director, William Desmond Taylor, has been shot in the back, and Kate has the inside scoop. Her dear friend and famous film star, Mary Miles Minter, fancied herself in love with Mr. Taylor. With Mary’s help, Kate is set to bring a new angle to the story. Easy peasy. But not so fast.
Suspicious, late-night visits to Taylor’s home, drug connections, false identities, and family secrets prompt Kate to try and solve the murder herself, much to the annoyance of the Los Angeles Police Department.
And then something wholly unexpected captures Kate’s attention; her neighbor and childhood friend, Nicky Masino, has returned from the Great War no longer the boy she once knew. Mysterious and explosive, Nicky is haunted by his past. After joining the LAPD, Nicky warns Kate to stay away from the Taylor murder case.
Why should Nicky care? And who are the two shadowy thugs following him? Could Nicky somehow be involved in the murder? Why is he so adamant Kate stop investigating?
Undaunted by the warnings, Kate and Addy charge unceremoniously into dangerous schemes involving salacious gambling dens, the notorious Cocoanut Grove, and speakeasies; not to mention the dark and seedy underbelly of Paramount Studios. A spectacularly wild time is had by all until Kate lands on the wrong end of a murder charge.
“Adams, whose previous books include a YA supernatural series, capably turns her hand to historical fiction here.”
—Kirkus Reviews
A Note From the Publisher
55% discount/returnable from IngramSpark
ebook 978-1-7371312-3-6
55% discount/returnable from IngramSpark
ebook 978-1-7371312-3-6
55% discount/returnable from IngramSpark
ebook 978-1-7371312-3-6
55% discount/returnable from IngramSpark
ebook 978-1-7371312-3-6
Advance Praise
“A teenage reporter in 1920s Los Angeles investigates the death of a Hollywood director in this YA mystery.
In February 1922, 17-year-old would-be journalist Katharine Ann March gets the scoop on the sudden death by gunshot of famed Paramount Studios movie director William Desmond Taylor. Kate wants to make a name for herself and boost the flagging circulation of her father’s newspaper, and she succeeds on both counts. Often to the annoyance of the Los Angeles Police Department and her longtime friend and neighbor Nicky Masino, a recent LAPD hire, she continues to report the developing story. Lines of investigation include the last person to see Taylor alive; the wife and daughter no one knew the director had; his thieving ex-chauffeur; and more. Kate has a source, too, in her close friend Mary Miles Minter, a 19-year-old film star who had a huge crush on the late-40s Taylor. Kate’s sleuthing takes her and her best friend, Adelaide ‘Addy’ Wells, into the sleaze and glamour of ’20s Hollywood, from speak-easies to a Paramount gala, while dodging suspicious characters—leading to a deadly alleyway encounter that leaves Kate with some explaining to do. Adams, whose previous books include a YA supernatural series, capably turns her hand to historical fiction here. Appropriately for its setting, the series opener has some wonderfully cinematic scenes that vividly evoke Roaring ’20s Hollywood, such as Kate’s flapper makeover and a food fight at the Coconut Grove. Kate is an engaging narrator, boldly wearing trousers and fearlessly poking into various anthills, while unresolved issues from her mother’s abandonment both give her depth and contribute to the story. The mystery itself is complex and satisfyingly resolved.
This sparkling series starter delivers a confounding mystery, authentic historical details, and a spirited journalist.”
—Kirkus Reviews
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Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781737131212 |
| PRICE | $16.99 (USD) |
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