Publisher's Weekly
Isaiah Justice, feisty editor and publisher of the crusading Southern newspaper The Defender , has been murdered, his favorite bourbon laced with cyanide. A network of suspicious events is quickly uncovered by Isaiah's energetic, fearless son Howard who, in this brisk and sometimes manic mystery, heads off in all directions to find the killer. Some signs point to the sinister Gemtrex Corporation, a mammoth newspaper chain with ties to the Mafia; Gemtrex has been making serious buyout attempts on The Defender . But other clues point to any number of vengeful local residents, insulted, injured or seduced by Isaiah over the years. Suspicion is even cast on Howard's chronically bickering siblings, all of whom had reasons to despise their strong-willed father. Howard, along with his father's former mistress, Suzanne, and Leroy, the paper's ambitious investigative reporter, spare no one in tracking down every lead--and eventually discover that Isaiah was being blackmailed over an obscure but potentially damaging incident buried in the past. Journalist and first-time novelist Squire pulls out all the stops and unleashes explosions, floods and unbridled passion in crafting a tale that, while leaving some ends loose, is forceful and engrossing.