A Front Page Affair

Set in 1915 not long after the sinking of the Lusitania, Vatsal’s spirited debut introduces 19-year-old Capability “Kitty” Weeks, an aspiring journalist who works on the “Ladies’ Page” because that’s the only reporting job open to women at the New York Sentinel. Her first solo assignment takes Kitty north of the city to the Independence Day gala at the Sleepy Hollow Country Club. During the fireworks, someone fatally shoots socially prominent Hunter Cole in the stables. Deferring to her on-the-spot knowledge, her boss at the Sentinel allows Kitty to investigate. She discovers that Cole had chronic money problems, a wife with a seedy past, and mysterious links to a German diplomat. Meanwhile, she’s questioned by Secret Service agents about her affluent father, whose accounts of his background and business dealings apparently don’t add up. Vatsal deftly intertwines the tumult of the era, from emerging women’s rights to spreading international conflict, into this rich historical. [em]Agent: Christina Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (May) [/em]