Murder in La Jolla

MURDER IN LA JOLLA (A Sadie Brown Mystery) by P. Austin Heaton finds a circa 1920s news reporter digging into suspicious activity when her husband is injured in a car accident and the driver shot in the head. Colorful descriptions of period landmarks and scenery add to the well-crafted storyline, bringing readers to a satisfying, yet unexpected, conclusion. - Review by "IndieReader"

It's 1921, and Sadie Brown, aviatrix, reporter, and sometimes crime investigator, has a serious problem on her hands. After an almost fatal auto accident, her husband's in a coma in the hospital - all due to a killer.

It began when Pierre Dubois, a French interpreter at the Los Angeles French Consulate, smugly believed he left behind his traitorous war-time activities and a particularly despicable secret when he sailed to the United States from France at the end of WWI. But in 1921, someone followed him to Southern California, and all Pierre's secrets started unraveling.

The 4th novel in the series is set in 1921 in a small California beach community with flashbacks to WWI France where people were desperately trying to defend themselves from the Germans and homegrown traitors. Also in war-time France was Sadie's husband, a Red Cross photographer, who met people whose true colors emerged during the ugliness of war.

Now Sadie is determined to catch the person who almost killed her husband before they kill again.

P. Austin Heaton is back with another Sadie Brown mystery - maybe the best one yet.

This feels a little more serious than the previous books in the series. The backdrop is the aftermath of WWI, and the stakes are high, with Sadie's husband in danger. It's kind of a mystery and redemption story rolled into one. I found the conclusion very satisfying. --- 5-Star Review from Author, Deborah Grant-Dudley, author of the Lost Mysteries series.