Irene Ingram has written for her fatherās newspaper, the Progress Herald, ever since she could grasp a pencil. Now sheās editor in chief, which doesnāt sit well with the men in the newsroom. But proving her journalistic bona fides is the least of her 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? Thatās 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 sheād 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 had received a terrifying message from a stranger. Moe suspected that Sam was being threatened not only for who he wasā¦but for what he knew. Tenacious Irene senses thereās more to the Markowicz story, which she is all but certain led to Moeās murder. When sheās not filling up column inches with the usual small-town fareālocals in uniform, victory gardens, and scrap drivesāshe and her best friend, scrappy secretary Peggy Reardon, search for clues. If they can find the killer, itāll be a scoop to stop the presses. But if they canāt, Irene and Peggy may face an all-too-literal deadline.