“Gripping crime story” — Readers’ Favorite, 5-Star Review“Unexpected twists and turns” — Readers’ Favorite – 5-Star Review“Engaging the reader from the first page to the last” — Readers’ Favorite, 5-Star ReviewA girl is dead. A boy is locked up. Can Debbie Bradley discover the truth before more lives are lost…maybe even her own?A series of deadly shootings. An outbreak of stolen cars. When … even her own?
A series of deadly shootings. An outbreak of stolen cars. When journalist Debbie Bradley returns home to St. Louis, the summer crime wave has started. And she’s in the center: A witness, a reporter, a target.
Debbie’s reasons for leaving behind her promising career in Washington D.C. were complicated. Her mother, a prominent lawyer, was diagnosed with cancer. Her engagement was cooling. When she got offered a job in St. Louis that she hadn’t been looking for, Debbie recognized an opportunity. Or an escape.
But she didn’t expect to come home and see a girl die. Debbie never planned to investigate a boy behind bars. And she didn’t anticipate colliding with hostile cops and wary politicians.As her work gains attention, Debbie gathers enemies. Will her assignment to cover the St. Louis crime beat be her last?
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Plot twists I didn’t see coming!
With her engagement and life in D.C. stuck in neutral, journalist Debbie Bradley returns to her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, to be there for her mother, who was recently diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer. Her mother, Beth Hughes, is a renowned personal injury attorney and is not pleased that her daughter has dropped a promising career in the nation’s capital (and a fiancé), to come home and play nursemaid when she feels she doesn’t need one. But Debbie’s decision to relocate is facilitated by a timely opening for a city/crime beat reporter on a new, upscale magazine focused on the town called “River City,” which happens to be under the direction of an old friend and former college mentor.
Although not thrilled with the column’s moniker, “Crime Beat Girl,” Debbie jumps in with both feet, and on her way to her first assignment, she witnesses a joyride gone bad, which ends with one 15-year-old dead and the 13-year-old driver in jail awaiting trial. But as Debbie delves into the deep background of the incident and other stories, she begins to get some traction, both in recognition and in contacts, from her well-written and well-researched pieces. She also attracts some unwanted attention from those that don’t want her asking questions or snooping around.
One contact she’s determined to cultivate is that of the lead detective investigating several of the police calls she’s covered: Daniel Flannery. Detective Flannery, a prickly 20-plus-year veteran of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, seems like a stand-up kind of guy, but his reputation was tarnished years earlier and while his fellow officers respect, appreciate, and support him; the brass, including the mayor, not so much. Mayor Jim Robinson, a former SLMPD officer and, at one time, Daniel’s best friend, is now married to Flannery’s ex-wife and publicly criticizes the detective every chance he gets.
Debbie also meets the defense attorney representing the young teen driver involved in the deadly joyride. Chase Laclede, like Debbie herself, is the child of two lawyers only rather than running from a future with the law; he embraced it and is quickly making a name for himself defending those that can’t afford their own representation.
As Debbie follows her stories and her column strikes gold, she suddenly finds herself targeted by some unknown someone: getting shot at and nearly run down by a car in the park. And when her mother receives some good news regarding her health situation, Debbie begins to wonder if St. Louis is the place for her, or should she go back to her life in D.C.?
“Crime Beat Girl” is a good story with plot turns that absolutely took me by surprise. I can honestly say, “I didn’t see that coming!” and am smacking my forehead going, “Of course!” Debbie Bradley is a smart, strong-willed young woman who is in the middle of some significant life changes. Her fiancé of several years seems only to have eyes for his career, and she feels the need to progress. She and her strong-willed mother (she comes by it naturally) are trying to navigate their adult relationship while living in her childhood home. And third, she is starting a new job in an (almost) new location. She’s very likable, and while in some circles being a reporter is a bad thing, she is portrayed as having pure and heartfelt motives behind her vocation. I liked the description and details of what this particular reporter’s daily working life was like and her role in the process of “feeding the monster.” The conflicts she encounters are understandable and natural, not contrived. I rooted for her success the entire book.
I enjoyed the setting of St. Louis and that it was somewhere other than New York or L.A. Debbie’s stories are set at various locations in that city’s changing landscape, and she gets involved with people at every level of the community. Some of the oldest families in St. Louis are (fictionally) portrayed, at both extremes of the social strata. The author drops in places and facts that were fun and interesting as well as references to some very current and still emotionally-charged events.
Finally, although there is no mention of this being the start of a new series, it certainly feels like one (and I certainly hope it is.) There are some developing storylines related to possible love interests, not only for Debbie but maybe for Beth as well, and I would like to see how they pan out. Readers will close the book on a couple of other lingering questions; however, they are not life-altering cliffhangers for the readers if this is Debbie’s solo voyage.
I recommend “CRIME BEAT GIRL” for mystery readers in general, those that would enjoy a reporter as a positive protagonist as the sleuth, and those that like a strong female lead.
I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving a free copy on Reedsy Discovery.
Drawing on her personal career as a journalist and lawyer, author Geri L. Dreiling immerses readers in Debbie’s life as a crime beat journalist returning home to help her well-known attorney mother navigate breast cancer treatment.
“Crime Beat Girl” kicks off as reporter, Debbie, returns to her hometown of St. Louis to care for her mother recently diagnosed with breast cancer. After dropping her fiancé and journalistic life in D.C. she doesn’t quite know what to expect of her new career in St. Louis as a writer for a print and online magazine, edited by a high school contact. However, as she arrives in town Debbie happens to be eyewitness to an out of control Audi driver as he plows down and kills one teen pedestrian. From there, her role as a reporter quickly becomes clear as she’s thrust into crime beat reporting as St. Louis’ summer of crime begins to kick off. As the story continues to unravel, Debbie seeks avenues to work her way up the food chain of “sources” in the mayor’s office, police department and community. But, will Debbie be able to stay on the fray as an innocent reporter, or will her eyewitness accounts and efforts to obtain sources put her at risk?
As a Midwesterner myself I deeply related to Debbie’s internal draw back to St. Louis. While Debbie recognized that D.C. would always have the more important stories, it was endearing that Dreiling gave readers an accurate and humbling account of Debbie’s desires and draw to remain in the community she grew up in, reporting on stories important to her and those she has come to love, respect, and befriend. Dreiling also did a fantastic job of weaving her own skills as a journalist and lawyer within the pages of her book. The conversations regarding the constitution and the friendship made between Debbie, a reporter, and Chase, a lawyer from a family of lawyers, not to mention the relationship between Debbie and her own lawyer mother are all the more realistic because of Dreiling’s own background within both.
“Crime Beat Girl” gives readers hints of a classic crime/detective mystery from the unique perspective of a reporter rather than the typical detective. What many would consider a “wrong place, wrong time” occurrence, a reporter finds to be “right place, right time” and seizes the opportunity thus propelling us through the entirety of this read. Crime, drama, and law run rampant throughout this book with a layer of mother-daughter emotion adding a layer of nuance to the page as the story within wraps neatly and rapidly into a bow.