Brogan, Jan. Final Copy

This first mystery by Bay State resident, Jan Brogan, is a humdinger. It is a good mystery with engaging characters, a convincing plot, and a thorough feel for investigative journalism as a calling and a business. A resident of Westwood, Massachusetts and an award-winning financial journalist in Providence and Worcester, the author uses her experiences of both location and workplace to create a convincing background for a twisting and creative plot.

She places her protagonist facing a possible comeback after her personal and professional lives have gone way down hill. Addy McNeil has been demoted to real estate reporter in the financial department of the fictious News-Tribune which is not The Boston Herald. She is using her connections to an old boyfriend-who broke her heart and is accused of murdering his business partner--to land the huge profile that will get her back on the front page. She is still mourning and trying to fathom the sudden death of her beloved brother, Rory, and her substance abuse during the year that followed it.

She finds herself immersed in the politics of high-stakes journalism, the financial mire of bio-tech start-ups, her brother Rory's untimely death a year before, and synthetic cocaine. Brogan does an admirable job of blending some interesting and disparate facts together long before you know they add up so that when Addy starts to make connections you do too.

The well-written details of Brogan's prose makes Addy a viable human character and the others from the accused Kit, to her colleague Lorraine, and her sponsor Dennis, ring true as believably real.

The ending leaves a great deal unfinished; however, this may because there is a sequel in the future. I'd read that. Or this is a great case of fiction imitating life well in all its dizzying complexities.

Leane M. Ellis, July 30, 2001.