Nearing retirement, Joe Wilcox looks back at his 23 year career at the Washington Tribune with frustration and quiet desperation. He left a comfortable home in Detroit to join the prestigious paper hoping to launch a stellar career, but after more than 20 years he's still just a crime reporter. When two murders of young women in the media occur, he comes up with a theory about a serial killer but prints it as if it were fact. Meanwhile, his estranged brother Michael is back in town which bodes no good for anyone.

This book highlights some of the more unpleasant aspects of the world of print media, and shows how a life chasing stories and fame can damage a persons integrity.

An interesting but odd mystery. It was ok.

Truman writes a pretty good mystery.

This installment of the Capital Crimes Series poses serious questions about the integrity of media at this time when newspapers compete with television and the internet to hold the attention of consumers.

Joe Wilcox is an aging reporter approaching retirement at the Washington Tribune, wondering whether his long career in journalism has amounted to anything worthwhile. Under pressure from his editor Paul Morehouse to produce something to catch the attention of their readers, he sees an opportunity to do that and make one final scoop before he leaves. The body of Jean Kaporis a beautiful female reporter at the paper, was found dead and stuffed in a supply closet at the office, a discovery that has everyone in a panic. Anxious to get things under control, the paper appoints Joe to lead an in-house investigation and he hardly gets started before the body of TV producer Collen MacNamara is discovered in a nearby park. Joe notes the similarities between the crimes: both women were beautiful, both worked in the media and both had been strangled. He begins to speculate that a serial killer may be on the loose, targeting that profile. Soon the other media pick up and run with his theory and Joe is suddenly in the spotlight, requested for interviews. The media attention gets him exactly what he wants, a chance at some last bit of glory before he retires. This may be his big break, his chance to leave his career on a high note.

The Metropolitan Police Department are running their own investigation and insist there is no evidence to substantiate Joe’s claims. The two task forces set up by the newspaper and the police are soon competing with one another, clashing over evidence, approach and conclusions. But as Joe’s speculations lead to outright lies, he discovers he must do more to maintain the momentum he has created and keep the story going, so he decides to set a trap for the killer, wading into dangerous waters.

During this time Joe has other things on his mind, including the safety of his daughter Roberta who is a TV reporter, his connection to a police detective who is bending a few rules to help him, and his brother Michael who has suddenly reappeared in Joe’s life after being committed to a mental institution for killing a young girl.

This crime story does not include a complex mystery. Instead, Truman uses her narrative to explore the question of journalistic integrity, posing questions about what separates fact-based journalism from tabloid rags that offer sensational fodder for consumption. It calls into question the ethics and integrity of ambitious reporters, all competing for jobs and their careers in the cutthroat world of the media. It questions their commitment to maintain ethical standards in their work, use verifiable quotes and reliable contacts, and avoid speculation and sensationalism. It speaks to the need to report facts, not what they believe their readers want to hear.

An interesting read that poses important questions, even if the mystery is easy to solve, leaving one large loose thread hanging, as it closes.

Not great but ok. I like the Capital Crime series but this just wasn’t one of the author’s best. However, if are looking for a quick beach day read, this might be for you.

Once upon a time I read Margaret Truman mystery novels. I don't remember which ones they were, sadly, but I do remember liking them. So I started to collect them as I found them at book sales and whatnot, and when I got back into audio books at the beginning of the year, I thought I'd start "reading" some of them.

Well, either my taste has changed or Ms. Truman's writing has faltered because this one's a total dud. Had it not been an audio book, I'd have probably given up. As it was, the story improved a bit as it went along, but ended flat.

Joe Wilcox is a good, but mediocre newspaper man who happens to be in the right place at the right time for a murder, and turns it into the story of his life. His daughter's on the TV news, and he's extremely close to a cop on beat. As the story grows legs so does the body count. And a new player enters the scene--Joe's long-lost brother, an insane killer. As his life gets more and more complicated and lies flow fast, can Joe figure out things long enough to survive in this world that's threatening to pass him by?

Oh, and in case you care, there's murders, too, but they appear to be secondary to the breakdown of Wilcox, which is part of why this mystery ultimately fails. In a mystery, it's fine to have a good set of character problems, but they need to be secondary to the plot. For whatever reason, Truman (perhaps tired of writing mysteries?) goes for a character study and it doesn't work for me at all.

Part of the reason for this is the story is incredibly dull for the first half of the book. It was looking like a predictable open and shut, but layers started getting added as time goes on. The problem is, because they come into the plot so late--it's easy to tell they are the key to the crime, so it becomes a "Oh, you're telling me that because that's the killer" kind of thing. There's so much time wasted setting up Joe Wilcox and his world that there's not enough time for the reader to get the facts needed to formulate suspects. Entire chapters go into Joe's back story, telling of his parents, his brother, his courtship, his love of green beans (okay, not really but you get the idea) that the stuff in the here and now is too rushed. And the ending feels like she was given a page limit, realized she'd missed it, and had to shoe-horn about 5 too many epilogues.

I don't ask for much in a mystery, they're my "fluff" reading. I like a good story, well plotted, with characters who need to find the bad guy. This is none of those things. I'm severely disappointed. I'll try one more to see if this was a fluke, but if not, to half-price books they go. (Library, 02/08)

Published over 15 years ago, this tale of backstage journalism in a changing media landscape that is reporting on what may be a series killer in the DC area seems very dated now with stifled dialog, but interesting, compels characters. However, I did enjoy the convoluted plotting that tied together for a satisfying ending.

In lieu of moving my life 3,000 miles my book goal for the year got slightly skewed... After the start of unpacking and being desperate for a book and having this one be the one I found... It still wasnt all & all awful, but it was more like a re-heated Cromwell/Patterson book. This genre is in some serious need of a re-vamp.

While we all know what Truman is famous for... and if you don't stop reading only the comics in the paper, she's not an awful writer, but I'm fairly certain publishers can do better in creativity than this one. Snooooooze.

This was another intriguing murder mystery by Margaret Truman set in Washington at the fictitious Washington Tribune newspaper. This book did not feature or even mention Mac and Annabelle Smith, usual characters included in this series. A gripping story of a seasoned newspaper reporter and his tv daughter reporter, a rising media star, dealing with some of the same murders to report and the added complication of an old murder in their own family. How they handled their confidential sources and facts of the investigations were woven into a fascinating story that offered twists, turns, and surprises.

This was so very slow, dry, and anticlimactic at the end. She went through all this work to create this whole story just to end it that way.

Not one likable person in this book. I got pretty tired of the cutthroat attitude between father and daughter and all the other reporters, police, etc. but I guess the story they are chasing is more important than being civil to each other. Mz Truman, being her father's daughter, is a Democrat, and had a lot bad to say about conservatives. I knew the moment one of the characters was described as having a ahem...R... after his name, he would be the killer (plus, they are always made to be the most unsavory people). Well, as it turned out, just one of the victims was of his doing--another drunk with an R after his name.
After slogging through pages and pages of useless words and unimportant situations, everything was wrapped up in a couple pages of the last chapter. Oh--and one of the murders was never solved.

I liked the characters - Joe Wilcox, veteran reporter for the Washington Tribune, his wife and daughter, Roberta, who was a a television reporter. Add an attractive police detective who Joe had a one night stand with a long time ago and a brother who mysteriously calls him after not being in the picture for many years. Then add his boss and a few fellow co-workers. The plot started out well but then got kind of tangled. About two thirds of the way through, I just wanted it wrapped up. Not one of her better books but it was okay. I miss the Reeds...