num_pages: 403
description: The 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 slew Kate has the audacity to not only wear boys 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. 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 Mr. Taylor. With Marys help Kate is set to bring a new angle to the story. Easy peasy. But not so fast. Suspicious late night visits to Taylors home drug connections false identities and family secrets prompt Kate to solve the murder herself much to the annoyance of the Los Angeles Police Department. But something wholly unexpected captures Kates 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 and illegal 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.
language: English
title: Speak Easy
publisher: Sphyhop Publishing