Couple Gunned Down--News at Ten-Laurie Moore.

Couple Gunned Down--News at Ten
Laurie Moore.
Five Star, $25.95
ISBN 9781432825287

In the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, the start of her new job as anchor at WBFD-TV is delayed as Aspen Wicklow needs to make bail for shooting a coyote attacking her pug. When she is released, her boss assigns Aspen the investigation of allegedly haunted Kirk House after a SWAT incident involving her. Intern Dainty Prescott (see Deb on Arrival--Live at Five) accompanies Aspen.

At the burned out house, the reporters meet Paper Cut a young female Goth. Paper Cut explains she is an undercover cop investigating the murder of a pregnant Goth girl and took the infant from the mother’s body. At the same time, Aspen's boyfriend Sheriff Spike Granger begins his re-election campaign. His biggest mission is to insure no one escapes custody.

The entertaining News at Ten journalistic investigative tale (see Woman Strangled--News at Ten) is a fantastic twisting whodunit. Fast-paced on the anchor, inquiry and romantic fronts, Aspen makes the story line work as the twenty something reporter combines grit, fortitude and spunk. Having the star of Live at Five play sidekick intern enhances a delightful often amusing thriller. The plot grips the audience from the moment her boss accuses the heroine of being busted for indecency and being a dominatrix while proclaiming Dainty did a great job on TV due to being half naked. Readers will relish following the jocular News at Ten as Aspen works the mean streets of Dallas-Fort Worth.

Harriet Klausner