About book Murder At The Washington Tribune (2006)
Once upon a time I read Margaret Truman mystery novels. I don't remember which ones they were, sadly, but I do remember liking them. So I started to collect them as I found them at book sales and whatnot, and when I got back into audio books at the beginning of the year, I thought I'd start "reading" some of them.Well, either my taste has changed or Ms. Truman's writing has faltered because this one's a total dud. Had it not been an audio book, I'd have probably given up. As it was, the story improved a bit as it went along, but ended flatter than Kate Moss's chest.Joe Wilcox is a good, but mediocre newspaper man who happens to be in the right place at the right time for a murder, and turns it into the story of his life. His daughter's on the TV news, and he's extremely close to a cop on beat. As the story grows legs so does the body count. And a new player enters the scene--Joe's long-lost brother, an insane killer. As his life gets more and more complicated and lies flow fast, can Joe figure out things long enough to survive in this world that's threatening to pass him by?Oh, and in case you care, there's murders, too, but they appear to be secondary to the breakdown of Wilcox, which is part of why this mystery falls flat. In a mystery, it's fine to have a good set of character problems, but they need to be secondary to the plot. For whatever reason, Truman (perhaps tired of writing mysteries?) goes for a character study and it doesn't work for me at all.Part of the reason for this is the story is incredibly dull for the first half of the book. It was fast looking like a predictable open and shut, but layers started getting added as time goes on. The problem is, because they come into the plot so late--it's easy to tell they are the key to the crime, so it becomes a "Oh, you're telling me that because that's the killer" kind of thing. There's so much time wasted setting up Joe Wilcox and his world that there's not enough time for the reader to get the facts needed to formulate suspects. Entire chapters go into Joe's back story, telling of his parents, his brother, his courtship, his love of green beans (okay, not really but you get the idea) that the stuff in the here and now is too rushed. And the ending feels like she was given a page limit, realized she'd missed it, and had to shoe-horn about 5 too many epilogues.I don't ask for much in a mystery, they're my "fluff" reading. I like a good story, well plotted, with characters who need to find the bad guy. This is none of those things. I'm severely disappointed. I'll try one more to see if this was a fluke, but if not, to half-price books they go. (Library, 02/08)Trebby's Take: Avoid. There's a #$%# of mysteries out there, no need to read bad ones.
2.5 StarsMargaret Truman is usually a good read. She knows how to meld character and plot driven narrative into her Capital Crimes Series, and that is what makes her mysteries good. However, Murder at The Washington Tribune was not her best novel. The plot line of young beautiful and rising “Panache” reporter, Jean Kaporis, at the fictitious Washington Tribune found brutally strangled in the supply closet at the far end of the newspaper’s main Newsroom immediately hooks the reader; especially when another young woman’s body is found in a nearby park soon after. Line Producer, Colleen McNamara was also strangled to death. With another young woman of the Media dead, headlines are screaming around Washington, D.C. Veteran Trib “cops” reporter Joe Wilcox is pressured to investigate the deaths with a task force of researchers and other Trib reporters to steer the MPD away from pursuing their theory that the killer works at the paper. His Editor also strongly suggests the bigger the story is, the greater the circulation and advertising revenue. Feeling the heat not only from his bosses, Wilcox wonders if his own daughter, Roberta, is out to scoop him. Robbie is a rising TV reporter who desperately wants to break the story wide open and be the first to report the killer’s identity. Wilcox believes the murders are the work of one person and purposely floats his theory as fact, a no-no in journalism. Enter Joe’s brother, Michael. He has arrived in D.C. after spending 40 years in a Mental Institution for the Criminally Insane for killing a young girl in Illinois. Michael was in the Tribune building the night Kaporis was killed. Could Michael be the killer, Wilcox wonders. Could his indiscretion jeopardize the flow of information he relies upon from is MPD source? Could his beautiful daughter be the killer’s next victim? Truman throws in a few more twists and mysteries, but loses threads here and there during the telling of the story, focusing on Joe and his relationships and his attempt to jump start his career in the cut-throat business that 21st Century Journalism has become with the advent of blogging and the 24/7 TV News cycle. He has become such a dinosaur that he missed the clue to Jean’s murderer that her father spoon fed him. The other investigations are predictable and the reader can solve some mysteries far ahead from when the answers are revealed. Other questions are never resolved, only to have Joe to exploit them. Veering away from her Capital Crime Series character, Mac Smith, just didn’t work well in this novel. Murder at The Washington Tribune was not bad, it just was not Truman's best.
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Murder at the Washington Tribune by Margaret Truman was a sad dissapointment to me. I suppose the author was going for sophistication. However, I like the hero (or heroine, or both) to be likable and veteran news reporter at the Trib, Joe Wilcox simply wasn't. Not only that, none of the characters in the book were, except Joe's wife Georgia, who he cheated on with the only other female character who was even remotely likeable, D.C. police detective Edith Vargas Swayze. Joe's TV news anchor daughter is constantly trying to steal stories from him and angry when he tries to protect his own news leads. Joe has a homicidal brother he hates who shows up after having spent forty years in a mental institution for brutally murdering a young girl. As a Christian, I may have over reacted, but the author has this brother, now calling himself Michael LaRue, fussy over serving wine and cheese when he finally gets Joe to visit his apartment. Michael wears tight fitting jeans and tops that reveal he's spending quite a bit of time at the gym, Michael also loves fine music and literature and meets with a woman who has similar interests, only that she has an interest in Michael that is totally unrequited. Michael does kill again in the book. He kills his drunken neighbor who makes the mistake of calling him gay. I thought there was a subtle suggestion that since Joe and the Michael were brought up in and ultra religious Christian home, Michale has somehow become homicidal because he had to surpress his homosexuality. This also didn't sit well with me
—Nike Chillemi
Joe Wilcox is a cops reporter nearing retirement. He has been a competent and ethical reporter over the years, but is still looking for that one big story which will leave its mark over the years. He is tested by a murder which occurs right under his nose at his paper. He is tempted to cut corners to sensationalize the story, he succumbs and must bear the consequenses. I started this book a couple of years ago, and quit. Since I am reaching retirement it was painful to read about someone flaming out at the end of their career.
—Bob
