The best of hers I’ve read. A journalist is drawn in to investigating the murder of two young women working ind DC’s media outlets, one print and one television.

Predictable. Lifetime movie material.

Murder at the Washington Tribune by Margaret Truman was a sad dissapointment to me. I suppose the author was going for sophistication. However, I like the hero (or heroine, or both) to be likable and veteran news reporter at the Trib, Joe Wilcox simply wasn't. Not only that, none of the characters in the book were, except Joe's wife Georgia, who he cheated on with the only other female character who was even remotely likeable, D.C. police detective Edith Vargas Swayze. Joe's TV news anchor daughter is constantly trying to steal stories from him and angry when he tries to protect his own news leads. Joe has a homicidal brother he hates who shows up after having spent forty years in a mental institution for brutally murdering a young girl. As a Christian, I may have over reacted, but the author has this brother, now calling himself Michael LaRue, fussy over serving wine and cheese when he finally gets Joe to visit his apartment. Michael wears tight fitting jeans and tops that reveal he's spending quite a bit of time at the gym, Michael also loves fine music and literature and meets with a woman who has similar interests, only that she has an interest in Michael that is totally unrequited. Michael does kill again in the book. He kills his drunken neighbor who makes the mistake of calling him gay. I thought there was a subtle suggestion that since Joe and the Michael were brought up in and ultra religious Christian home, Michale has somehow become homicidal because he had to surpress his homosexuality. This also didn't sit well with me

2.5 Stars

Margaret Truman is usually a good read. She knows how to meld character and plot driven narrative into her Capital Crimes Series, and that is what makes her mysteries good. However, Murder at The Washington Tribune was not her best novel. The plot line of young beautiful and rising “Panache” reporter, Jean Kaporis, at the fictitious Washington Tribune found brutally strangled in the supply closet at the far end of the newspaper’s main Newsroom immediately hooks the reader; especially when another young woman’s body is found in a nearby park soon after. Line Producer, Colleen McNamara was also strangled to death. With another young woman of the Media dead, headlines are screaming around Washington, D.C. Veteran Trib “cops” reporter Joe Wilcox is pressured to investigate the deaths with a task force of researchers and other Trib reporters to steer the MPD away from pursuing their theory that the killer works at the paper. His Editor also strongly suggests the bigger the story is, the greater the circulation and advertising revenue.

Feeling the heat not only from his bosses, Wilcox wonders if his own daughter, Roberta, is out to scoop him. Robbie is a rising TV reporter who desperately wants to break the story wide open and be the first to report the killer’s identity. Wilcox believes the murders are the work of one person and purposely floats his theory as fact, a no-no in journalism. Enter Joe’s brother, Michael. He has arrived in D.C. after spending 40 years in a Mental Institution for the Criminally Insane for killing a young girl in Illinois. Michael was in the Tribune building the night Kaporis was killed. Could Michael be the killer, Wilcox wonders. Could his indiscretion jeopardize the flow of information he relies upon from is MPD source? Could his beautiful daughter be the killer’s next victim?

Truman throws in a few more twists and mysteries, but loses threads here and there during the telling of the story, focusing on Joe and his relationships and his attempt to jump start his career in the cut-throat business that 21st Century Journalism has become with the advent of blogging and the 24/7 TV News cycle. He has become such a dinosaur that he missed the clue to Jean’s murderer that her father spoon fed him. The other investigations are predictable and the reader can solve some mysteries far ahead from when the answers are revealed. Other questions are never resolved, only to have Joe to exploit them. Veering away from her Capital Crime Series character, Mac Smith, just didn’t work well in this novel. Murder at The Washington Tribune was not bad, it just was not Truman's best.

Margaret Truman's books have a certain sameness to them. She was a very nice woman and just couldn't write about really bad people, so most of her criminals are that way because of circumstances.

Forty years ago, Joe Wilcox's older brother. Michael brutally murdered a teenaged neighbor girl and was sent to a mental hospital after being found not guilty by reason of insanity. No time is spent on whether he really WAS insane, or just used that defense to save his life.

Now, a woman reporter at Joe's newspaper, The Washington Tribune, has been killed in the newsroom!! And Michael has re-appeared, having been judged sane and released. But, Joe doesn't know about Michael, nor does his daughter, Roberta, a rising TV journalist. Michael makes himself known, appearing as charming and a talented guitarist and chef.

Then Joe commits an absolutely unbelievable (and TOTALLY out of character!) crime, which for me ruined the rest of the book.

I am a big fan of Margaret Truman but this book was just bad. The lead characters were unlikeable. Halfway through the book I knew who the murderer was, but the lead character had never looked in that direction even though he had huge clues to follow! Not a very good journalist if he can’t follow where the story leads. A big disappointment.

Boring.

Joe Wilcox, in print, and his daughter, Roberta, in TV, are rivals for the same story: a female reporter at Joe's paper, The Washington Tribune, has been murdered. Detective Edith Vargus-Swayze, one of the few interesting characters in the book, has been Joe's source within the police department in the past and he tries to use her again. When a second woman is killed, the pressure is on from all their employers to find the killer(s).

The story meanders on far too long with a focus on Wilcox, an aging reporter who's being pushed out by younger people and younger ideas about what reporting is becoming - more tabloid and less facts. Tabloid is winning. Midway, Joe's long lost brother shows up to add a little tension. But Joe cracks under the pressure and makes a desperate and duplicitous decision that betrays both his professional standards, his relationship with Vargus-Swayze, and his family. Then far too easily, it's all wrapped up and tied with a bow and everyone lives happily ever after.

Margaret Truman mysteries are generally good, solid page turners. That was not the case for Murder at the Washington Tribune. Perhaps it is because the Tribune is ficticious ( maybe to avoid legal issues with the Washington Post?), but I found this mystery lacked the energy and pull most of the Capital Crimes mysteries have. The book is long...nearly 400 pages. While Trumans attention to detail is part of what makes her books good, this book is especially and unnecessarily wordy that adds nothing to the plot....Do we really need to know where a character's necklace came from? Who gave the editor the antique coat rack? How long a character napped before cocktails? Why does it matter that a woman's robe is freshly pressed when she comes downstairs for her morning coffee? I found myself wondering when the action was really going to begin. Even though the book was written in 2005, it seems dated. The lavicious descriptions of the young female characters physical attributes were almost uncomfortable to read, and the banter between the reporters and cops is full of racist, sexist and agist microagressions that just would not fly in the current workplace. Some of the characters were stereotypical caricatures....the Italian couple who run the neighborhood pizzeria; Wilcox's devoutly religous parents. Finally, I found Joe Wilcox's lamenting over feeling washed up at age 53 a bit implausible, though if current journalists partake in the multiple cocktail lunches described here, it is possible. All of this excess got in the way of the mystery, which was pretty obvious to me who did it early on. Not one of Truman's strongest reads.

This is the first Truman book that I read after reading so much praise about her other DC crime books. Truman tells the story of a seasoned reporter who's likely at the end of his career and has little motivation. An easy book to read. I was actually expecting more of a revealing end to the book, I had high expectations and it wasn't so shocking.

I definitely have to say that Truman's description of a crime reporter job, what it entitles and the frustrations are very, very accurate. She didn't romanticize the job or added Hollywood like characteristics.

A middling effort that seems to pile on details in place of plot. The descriptions are flat; the word choices and stilted dialogue is unbelievable; the coincidences are supposed to be red herrings I think, but are instead dead ends that not even the police or journalists are interested in pursuing; the only passions anyone in this novel have are for food and screwing; but most of all, there is no structure to the story, stuff just happens in no particular order.

Now some of this I could overlook, but I am taking off an accuracy star. I know DC pretty well and the city Truman describes simply does not exist. The strange love that her characters show for the truly terrible restaurant culture in DC makes me suspect that she was paid by the DC tourism council. Also, the book is suspiciously lily white for a story taking place in a city more than half Black and even in 2006 there was a stiff backbone of Latino and Somali neighborhoods within easy walking distance of all the action. Perhaps that is the one believable element to this novel; the police and news media only care when a couple of pretty white girls die close to the White House.

Also, if you are going to try and humanize your Hispanic characters by having them speak a little Spanish, and you don't actually know any Spanish yourself, I recommend having someone who knows the language either write that part or read what you think it should be. Don't just wing it...

Published in 2005, Murder at the Washington Tribune, is like Margaret Truman's other mysteries. Superb! There has been a murder in the fictional "Washington Tribune". (All other locals such as eateries, and other landmarks are authentic to D C ) The police are investigating, but the paper starts it's own investigation as well. Enter Joe Wilcox, a veteran crime reporter. He's married, has an adult daughter with a career in broadcast journalism. Joe is in full tilt midlife crisis. He's knocking on retirement's door and feels he hasn't accomplished his career goals. He's desperate to achieve something big before he's forced out by new journalist in a new climate for news. So, when another murder occurs in a park, and Joe is close to the scene, he takes the story. When he gets wind of the theory some might believe this murder was connected with the earlier murder, he starts a series for the paper about the possibility of a serial killer being responsible. Joe's boss loves how the papers start selling and encourages Joe to continue with that theme. But, the cops aren't on board with the theory. They think the two crimes are unrelated. But, the theme through out the novel, explains how down hill journalism has gone. They must compete with 24/7 cable channels, the internet, blogs, and their ability to film news as it's happening. Newspapers don't have that edge. They are less concerned with fact and more concerned with revenue and the bottom line. Whatever sells papers. Joe hate tabloid reporting, but he's getting pressure from upstairs to consider early retirement, so he goes along. On top of all his job pressures, Joe has been contacted by his long lost brother, who has been "away" for 40 years.Everything starts to take it's toll on Joe, who makes a terrible decision, which could cost him everything. The book ends on an uplifting note, showing how our society now responds to scandal. At the time of this publication, Truman couldn't have imagined what would come in the next 7 years, with social media etc. A good authentic, old fashioned murder mystery.