Hello! My name is Irene Ingram and I’m the editor-in-chief of the Progress Herald. Pop left me in charge when he pulled some strings with a friend in the war department and got assigned to be a war correspondent. Right now he’s on a ship heading for somewhere in the Pacific. A couple of the men I now oversee aren’t too happy about the situation even though I’ve been writing for Pop’s newspaper since I could pick up a pencil. Some days I get tired of hearing, “That’s not how your father would do it.” Thank goodness my best friend, Peggy works with me.

Right now it’s just me, Mom, and my younger sister, Lily at home. Lily is fourteen and madly in love with a singer you may have heard of—Frank Sinatra. He has a nice voice, but he’s not much to look at. And with Pop gone for the duration, Mom decided to advertise a room for rent to help with expenses, which means Lily and I are now sharing a room. Hopefully it won’t take too long to get a boarder.

Anyway, it’s May of 1942 and there’s not much going on in Progress at the moment. We’re getting ready for the groundbreaking of the town’s victory garden and there’s a scrap drive being planned. Everyone wants to do their part for the war effort although I’ve heard more than my share of complaints about the sugar rationing that recently went into effect.

We’re also getting ready for the dedication ceremony at Tabor Ironworks. The Ironworks has been around longer than I remember. They used to make parts like nuts and bolts for automobiles. Now that President Roosevelt has suspended making cars, Tabor’s expanded and converted their equipment to make parts for Jeeps, tanks, and the ships being made at Dravo over in Pittsburgh. My ace reporter, Moe Bauer will cover the ceremony.

Just this morning, I sent him to talk to Sam Markowicz, whose hardware store was robbed. At least that’s what Ava Dempsey, the resident town gossip said when she telephoned. Ava means well but you have to take what she tells you with a grain of salt. Moe was supposed to talk to Ava too, but he never showed. I’m getting a little annoyed with him going off and chasing what he calls “hot leads” that never pan out.

When I talked to Chief Walter Turner, who happens to be my future father-in-law—I’m engaged to his son, Bill, who’s down south training with the Third Armored division—the chief said it wasn’t a robbery at all. What he showed me sent a chill through me. How could something like this happen in our friendly town?

Now it looks like I’ll have to go and talk to Sam myself and get to the bottom of this. Who would do such a thing? And what could Moe be off chasing? I guess I’ll find out soon enough.

Front Page Murder, A Homefront News Mystery #1
Genre: Historical
Release: March 2022
Purchase Link

In this World War II-era historical mystery series debut by Joyce St. Anthony, small-town editor Irene Ingram has a nose for news and an eye for clues.

Irene Ingram has written for her father’s newspaper, the Progress Herald, ever since she could grasp a pencil. Now she’s editor in chief, which doesn’t sit well with the men in the newsroom. But proving her journalistic bona fides is the least of Irene’s worries when crime reporter Moe Bauer, on the heels of a hot tip, turns up dead at the foot of his cellar stairs.

An accident? That’s what Police Chief Walt Turner thinks, and Irene is inclined to agree until she finds the note Moe discreetly left on her desk. He was on to a big story, he wrote. The robbery she’d assigned him to cover at Markowicz Hardware turned out to be something far more devious. A Jewish store owner in a small, provincial town, Sam Markowicz received a terrifying message from a stranger. Moe suspected that Sam is being threatened not only for who he is…but for what he knows.

Tenacious Irene senses there’s more to the Markowicz story, which she is all but certain led to Moe’s murder. When she’s not filling up column inches with the usual small-town fare—locals in uniform, victory gardens, and scrap drives—she and her best friend, scrappy secretary Peggy Reardon, search for clues. If they can find the killer, it’ll be a scoop to stop the presses. But if they can’t, Irene and Peggy may face an all-too-literal deadline.

About the author
Joyce St. Anthony is the author of the Homefront News Mysteries, set during WWII. As Joyce Tremel, she is the author of the award-winning Brewing Trouble mysteries. A former police secretary, she took to writing about crimes instead of committing them. She lives in the Laurel Highlands of PA with her husband and two cats—Hops and Lager.

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