The Fourth Estate

A red-hot reporter for the Boston Free Press, Zoe Alison, is in desperate search for the investigative half of their partnership, Carol Caletti, which would have been touted as the modern day Woodward and Bernstein, had there been public knowledge of their association. Caletti remained in the shadows, doing her work, lifting rocks to see what grubby thing crawled from underneath, which Alison could then report to the world. But shadows became dark. Caletti is nowhere to be found, and just when they were about to publish the story of all stories.

Lisa Sheed, an on again-off again private investigator who now makes her living investigating companies to invest in as a day trader, has been sought by Alison to find her partner. Alison all but begs Sheed to take the case. The police are not taking the disappearance seriously. The newspaper Alison works for isn't taking it seriously. "Probably undercover investigating a story," is the prevailing sentiment about Caletti. "She will turn up, it's only been a few days." But Zoe knows her partner.  She always stays in communication, even when digging for dirt.

Dirt becomes quicksand as powerful forces converge to bury the story and the investigator.

Full of twists and turns, The Fourth Estate delivers a thriller, investigating how stories get buried or told and the dangers reporters face to tell the truth.  How the rich and powerful dictate what the truths are.  And how tangled up in that mess, the very lives of these women are at stake.