A Front Page Affair by Radha VatsalMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I absolutely loved this book, which is a fantastically well-researched historical mystery set in New York City 100 years ago. The heroine, Kitty Weeks, is a real American original, daring and demure in equal measures, unabashedly forward-thinking and ambitious yet still a woman firmly of her time. A Ladies' Page writer who dreams of making it as a real reporter at a time when women were still relegated to the newspaper's "hen coop," Kitty drives her Stutz Bearcat (one of many wonderful cinematic details) through the streets of New York in search of the truth behind a mysterious murder that took place in the middle of a high-society party. The quest takes her from luxurious private clubs to the halls of the Tombs, New York's most notorious prison, and straight to the heart of the political intrigue of the day, the events leading up to America's entry into the Great War. The mystery plot was enthralling in and of itself, but it was the portrait of Old New York that provided the wow factor - there are very few writers who can conjure up this kind of authenticity. A fun, fascinating, feminist read- especially if you love New York!
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