I love a good investigative journalist story, and Jean Heller rings the bell with book #1 of her Deuce Mora series starring the female columnist from the fictional Chicago Journal. I loved Deuce, including her insecurities and her dogged determination. The out-of-nowhere sex scene caught me by surprise (but it was a good one!), but otherwise this was a solid traditional mystery with plenty of twists, villains, victims, and intrigue.

The book begins with the assassination of a US Congressman in Las Vegas. The assassin plays a role throughout the book, although the connection between the exciting opening scene and the rest of the story is tenuous at best. It’s a great hook, however, to get new readers interested, so it does the job.

The real plot starts when Deuce digs into her file of dormant story idea when she’s searching for a column topic. Her “someday file” includes an aging man named Vinny who is a former low-level mobster. Deuce meets with him, then he is brutally murdered. Was it something he told Deuce? Or something he might have told Deuce? The reporter is curious and digs in further, leading to a long-ago tragedy where an enclave of migrant workers was burned, with many fatalities. As Deuce peels back the onion’s layers, more witnesses are killed or go missing, and the story about what was known as “Ransom Camp” begs to be written.

The paper starts to get cold feet, various local politicians and heavy hitters get involved, and Deuce threatens to reveal secrets that were long buried. All the makings of a great mystery!

The text is clean, well-written, and well-edited (aside from a large number of annoying backwards apostrophes, although I may be the only person who would care). Ms. Heller gives us many memorable turns of phrase and similes that enhance the story, as befits a former journalist. The pages turn quickly as the pacing is marvelous.

As the first book in this series, and perhaps Ms. Heller’s first novel, there are some plotting issues that are not huge problems, but make it sometimes a bit hard to follow the very complex story. And the above-mentioned lack of a good connection between the first scene and the assassin and the rest of the plot is a small concern. These are the tiniest of blemishes on what is a terrific start to a series. If the books get better from here, I’m going to become a huge Deuce Mora fan. Call it 4.5 stars for Amazon purposes. For your purposes, it’s a book you should seriously go out and get, particularly since it’s often discounted, including as part of a box set of the first four books in this series.