Stacy Juba Review

(2009) 25 Years Ago Today (Publishes: October 27, 2009) (First in a new series)

Kris Langley, age 26, has the lowliest job at the Fremont (MA) Daily News. She’s a veritable dogsbody: working the four-to-midnight shift, writing obituaries, doing scut work for reporters and coming up with filler pieces -- like the paper’s “25 Years Ago Today” column. While Kris is looking back at old issues for that column, she reads the story of the murder of Diana Ferguson. Ms. Ferguson was a local woman, a young cocktail waitress – and her murder was never solved. Kris has her own memories of murder – of a young cousin – to deal with. Her cousin’s murder was solved, so she can really sympathize with a family that’s living with a unsolved murder. 

Aspiring to become a “real” reporter, Kris takes it upon herself to look into the story – and, ultimately, to solve the murder. She’s at first thwarted, then helped by one of the dead woman’s relatives – her nephew Eric  Soares. Kris’s investigative excursion doesn’t make her very popular with either the police reporter or the managing editor (she’s a delicious villain) of the Daily News. But Kris is aided and abetted by the editor-in-chief, Dex Wagner, who’s 70-something and on his way out, not necessarily of his own volition.

Ever since I was a teaching assistant for a journalism professor who believed obituaries were a cornerstone of the profession, I’ve considered myself a connoisseur of obituaries. So, I was quite interested in Stacy Juba’s new heroine. Plus I’ve always had a liking for mysteries that delve into “old murders.”  Even when I’m interested in a premise or story concept, I can be disappointed in how the author handles it. Not so with Stacy Juba. She did a great job with the story. The writing was top-notch, the plotting and pacing excellent, the characters – especially the protagonist – carefully and wonderfully drawn. I can’t imagine a reader who won’t cheer for Kris. She’s a bit naïve, and definitely not a hard-nosed journalist. But she has heart, desire, and sympathy for her sources – something that’s often missing today in journalism.

By Diana. First published in the Cozy Library September 29, 2009.