SPEAK EASY — Lori Adams

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 ReviewsThe 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 sleuth, 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