Murder at the Washinton Tribune

Fourth Blog - 4/9/10
I just finished the novel this morning. The ending was predictable, and having read some other novels from this author, somewhat disappointing. After checking with her supervisor at MPD, Edith Vargas-Swayze confronts Joe Wilcox about her suspicions regarding the origins of the "serial killer" letters, and Joe admits to making dishonest revelations to the public. He agrees to come into Headquarters after disclosing this to his wife, daughter, and brother, Michael, who is under suspicion as a deliveryman to the Trib the night of the murder.
Joe arrives home to discover his wife in tears over the marital infidelities of her friend's husband, Paul Morehouse, the Washinton Tribune's editor and Joe's boss. Mimi Morehouse had discovered numerous, threatening e-mails between Paul and Jean Kaporis, the first murder victim. After calming her, he talks about the forged letters from the alleged serial killer and his need to confess this unethical behavior. Joe contacts Robbie and shares an abbreviated version of the story over the phone with her.
Georgia agrees to accompany Joe to the police station and urges him to telephone his brother with the truth and apologize for the fabrications. Joe calls and tells Michael, and they make plans to meet at Michael's apartment at five-thirty. In the meantime, Robbie contacts Michael and makes a date to issue her own apology and explanation for her jounalistic involvement.
When she arrives at the apartment, Michael whisks her into a rented convertible and takes her to a secluded restaurant for dinner. Joe and Georgia report to the police station without Michael who is now under suspicion of his neighbor's death, Rudy Grau, based upon an eyewitness account. Michael encourages Robbie to bring her camera crew to the restaurant, and he admits murdering Rudy in Robbie's television interview.
A folder containg the threatening e-mails between Jean Kaporis and Paul Morehouse is dropped off at MPD Headquarter, and Edith Vargas-Swayze leaves the station with other detectives to arrest Paul. He is tried and convicted of the murder, but there is no solution to the second murder in Franklin Park.
In the weeks following the arrests and news revelations, Joe Wilcox was vilified by the media as an aberration of journalistic integrety and honesty, though criminal charges were never brought against him. The Washington Tribune suffered a double blow with its top editor as a murderer and its best police reporter as a deceiver and forger. Roberta Wilcox became a popular broadcast journalist who spoke on numerous talk shows where she pointed out her father's long and successful career as a newspaper journalist to no avail.
Years later, Georgia and Joe Wilcox sold their home in Rockville and settled in New Mexico. Paul Morehouse was found guilty of Jean Kaporis' murder and sentenced to forty years in prison with appeals planned by his attorneys. Michael Wilcox was sentences to life without parole, and Roberta Wilcox moved to New York to become a correspondent on 20/20.

Third posting 4/8/10
Joe Wilcox has engaged in falsifying information to gain attention and create articles for the Tribune. I am most disappointed by his unethical means to "create news". He surreptitiously typed a note on his brother's typewriter and mailed it to his work address, thus claiming that he had been contacted by the "serial killer". This threatening note gained him attention from many media sources with requests for interviews and articles. He continued to display this unethical behavior by typing a second note on his brother's typewriter and placing this into his home mailbox. MPD was contacted after the first threatening note and had placed protective survelliance upon his home. They had noted no unfamiliar contacts with the home mailbox.
Joe's former romantic alliance, Detective Edith Vargas-Swayze, and her partner have been handed the letter left in the Wilcox mailbox. Questions have arisen as to the origin of the fngerprints left on the untyped paper. As the story nears the end, Wilcox's newspaper boss, Paul Morehouse, is romancing a young graduate journalism student with possible future employment opportunities at The Washington Tribune. Does he have any other interests in the former young women found murdered near the Tribune building?

Murder at the Washngton Tribune

Second blog - 4/6/10
Michael LaRue (Wilcox) does express a strong desire to meet Joe's wife and daughter, but Joe is hesitant and asks that he be given some time to sort through this new twist in the life of his family. He tries to immerse himself into the further exposure of a possible "serial killer" loose in the city of Wasghington, D.C. His boss is ecstatic about the Tribune's rise in popularity due to Wilcox's article and encourages him to explore further angles in the case, thus keeping the tragedy in the public's eye.
One evening upon returning home, he is surprised to find his long-lost brother enjoying the companionship of his wife, Georgia, and daughter, Roberta. They are both enamored by the charming company of Michael, much to Joe's dismay. He forces himself to relax, but hopes that the visit will not be repeated soon. Later, another body is found in Franklin Park. This time it is a male victim who happens to be Michael's obnoxious neighbor. Is there a connection?

Murder at the Wahington Tribune

The author of this novel, Margaret Truman, is the wife of fomer President Harry Truman. Her knowledge of the Washington, D.C. area lends much credibility to the characters and plots in her series of Capital Crimes mysteries. In this book, a young woman has been found murdered at the Washington Tribune. The journalists and Metropolitan Police Department are at odds with each other in solving this horrific crime.

When a second, attractive woman involved in the media is murdered, Trib reporter Joe Wilcox reports on a possible "serial killer" connection on a tip from an unknown MPD source. The articles cause much turmoil within the police department, but give Joe a renewed sense of purpose in his career. Joe's daughter, Roberta, is a successful broadcast journalist who turns to her father for more information on the crimes and is stonewalled by him.

One of the characters interviewed by MPD detective and Joe's romantic connection, Edith Vargas-Swayze, is a Trib delivery man by the name of Michael LaRue who had just moved to the Washington area from Illinois following a second divorce. At this point of the novel, it has been revealed that this character is Joe Wilcox's estranged brother, Michael. Joe hasn't been in contact with his brother for forty years and is concerned as to why he has moved to Washington. Does the brother have an agenda against Joe? Why has he moved to Washington with information files containing many of Joe's Washington Tribune articles?