Customer Reviews

Kill the Messenger

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"Kill the Messenger, A Newspaper Mystery," (1990) is by Elizabeth Daniels Squire, resident in Weaverville, North Carolina, who has written for newspapers from Connecticut to Beirut. Newspapering runs in her family, and in a distinguished, influential way; her grandfather, Josephus Daniels, was an editor and one-time Navy Secretary; her father, Jonathan Daniels, was President Truman's Press Secretary.

The story concerns the murder, by cyanide poisoning, of the Old Man, otherwise known as Isaiah Justice, editor and publisher of "The Defender," influential small town North Carolina newspaper; which, at the same time, is in the sights of an acquisition firm, Gemtrex, for a takeover, presumably hostile, about which, the Justice family is, of course, divided. So the Old Man's favored son Howard and the other star reporter, Leeroy Hicks, start investigating the publisher's death while trying to save their jobs. They are aided in this by Suzanne Mancini, the publisher's assistant, and mistress. It's a nearly twenty year old book, but some of the plot elements, it seems to me, were dated even back when it was written: there's a lot of fuss about Howard's exposing some people who want to build a racetrack; and by 1990, I am sure, more racetracks were going out of business than were being built.

Unfortunately, the author's writing is flat, and the mystery is pitifully thin, capped by one of those long chapters in which the perp confesses all. The characters are cut of finest cardboard. Furthermore, the author, despite her newspaper background, doesn't manage to give us even a taste of genuine newspapering. You sure can't get even a whiff of printers' ink or hear the roar of the presses in this book.