The Death Beat

Book excerpt: 'Manhattan, beware! Formidable reporter Poppy Danby enjoys a luxury voyage across the Atlantic. Her indefatigable and entertaining search for truth reveals the seediness and glamour of 1920s New York.' Frances Brody, author of the Kate Shackleton mysteries When London Daily Globe editor Rollo Rolandson has to return to New York for three months, he takes his star reporter, Poppy Denby, with him. Poppy is very excited to be working on the world-famous New York Times and looks forward to immersing herself in the arts and entertainment of Manhattan. Instead, she is allocated the death beat--journalese for obituaries--and tied to her desk. But the young reporter has a nose for a story, and when a European prince dies in a luxury penthouse apartment, she starts to investigate. She follows a sordid trail involving illegal immigrants, forced labor, eugenics, sexual scandals . . . and an unexpected ghost from her past. Poppy is determined to help the victims, but can she find the evidence to bring the perpetrators to justice without putting her own life in danger…