Murder on Location
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
In the Alaska Territory, suffragette Charlotte Brody is a newspaper reporter in the frontier town of Cordova. She’s a woman ahead of her time living on the rugged edge of civilization—but right now the most dangerous element she faces may come from sunny California . . .
An expedition has arrived in the frigid wilderness to shoot North to Fortune—an epic motion picture featuring authentic footage of majestic peaks, vast glaciers, homesteaders, and Alaska Natives. But the film’s fortunes begin to go south as a local Native group grows angry at how they’re portrayed in the movie, fights break out, and cast and crew are beset by accidents and assaults. Finally, production is halted when the inebriated director falls into a crevasse—and dies of exposure.
Soon Michael Brody—the town coroner and Charlotte’s brother—starts to suspect that Mother Nature was not responsible for Stanley Welsh’s death. Charlotte, who’s been writing about all the Hollywood glamor, is suddenly covering a cold-blooded crime story—and as springtime storms keep the suspects snowed in, she has to make sure the truth doesn’t get buried . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pegau's engaging third Charlotte Brody mystery (after 2016's Borrowing Death) opens in the spring of 1920 with journalist Charlotte still adjusting to her new life in Cordova, Alaska. Her relationship with Deputy James Eddington is proceeding apace, and she enjoys reporting for the Cordova Daily Times. After businessman Wallace Meade persuades Hollywood director Stanley Welsh that Cordova is the perfect place to shoot his movie, Charlotte is assigned to cover the filming on location. The focus of her story changes quickly after Welsh's body turns up at the bottom of a crevasse. Suspects include the leading lady, with whom he was having an affair; the scriptwriter, who's also the director's put-upon daughter; and members of the local Eyak tribe, who strongly object to Welsh's portrayal of Alaskan natives. When a snowstorm traps the cast and crew, it's up to Charlotte to track down the killer. Pegau deftly depicts a Progressive-era woman with a complicated past who's trying to start anew.