The Reader's Advisor

The Fourth Estate:
The Newspaper Business in Fiction

The Webster Chronicle, by Daniel Akst. BlueHen, 2001.
While Terry Mathers, the son of a successful news anchor, struggles with the failure of both his nearly bankrupt newspaper and his marriage, a shocking story involving child abuse accusations at the local preschool breaks and he seizes upon the opportunity to revitalize his career. But who will pay the price for his ambition?

The Fourth Estate, by Jeffrey Archer. HarperCollins, 1996.
Two rival media tycoons from starkly different backgrounds are bent on global domination of the newspaper industry.

The Press Lord, by James Brady. Delacorte, 1982.
When Campbell Haig adds The New York Mail to his tabloid newspaper empire, he inherits some powerful enemies. Then his life gets really complicated when he finds himself in a relationship with Alexandra Noyes, the press-hounded daughter of a dead American president.

I Shouldn't Be Telling You This, by Mary Breasted. H&R, 1983.
A humorous look at the madcap world of a great, pompous newspaper. Hired for reasons of his own by a superbly manic editor, Sarah Makepeace begins work as a reporter on a prestigious New York newspaper called, well, "The Newspaper." She soon finds herself embroiled in office politics, careerist games and sexual intrigue. On an early assignment she meets a charming, if slightly mad undercover cop, who becomes her lover and news source. And when she finds a skeleton in the closet of a presidential hopeful whose candidacy "The Newspaper" has all but arranged, mayhem results.

Blood Alley, by Tom Coffey. Toby, 2008.
In 1946, World War II veteran and crime reporter Patrick Grimes, who works for a scandal sheet called The New York Examiner, investigates after the daughter of one of Manhattan's wealthiest men is found dead in a squalid section of New York City she had no business being in. He knows that the police have beaten a confession out of an African-American watchman and his digging unearths a number of powerful people who might have wanted Amanda dead.

Correcting the Landscape, by Marjorie Kowalski Cole. HarCol, 2006.
Gus Traynor, the idealistic editor of a small, struggling weekly newspaper in Fairbanks, Alaska, finds his circulation diminishing even more when he opposes a plan to develop the breathtaking wilderness he cherishes. At the same time, he realizes that he may be falling in love with single mother Gayle Keneally, who is interning at the paper.

Morgue Mama, by C. R. Corwin. Poisoned Pen, 2003.
Ambitious young reporter Aubrey McGinty enlists the assistance of acerbic, curmudgeonly Dolly Madison "Morgue Mama" Sprowls, who has been charge of the Hannawa Herald-Union's morgue for more than 40 years, to help her prove that Sissy James, the convicted killer of TV evangelist Buddy Wing, is not guilty of the crime, even though she confessed to it. Followed by: Dig (2005) and The Unraveling of Violeta Bell (2008).

The Magnates, by Susan Crossland. Random House, 1995.
International media magnates Miles Brewster and Gerald Scope are bitter enemies who both have guilty secrets leading back to the President of the United States, his wife, and a fatal car crash in which Brewster was involved, and Scope's blackmail of the British Defense Secretary. Zoe Hare is an up-and-coming journalist who crosses the Atlantic to work for Brewster when he takes over a British paper and who finds herself in the middle of the Magnates' battle for power.

Flight Dreams, by Michael Craft. Kensington, 1997.
While working on the case of a long-missing heiress about to be declared legally dead, Chicago journalist Mark Manning runs afoul of rival reporters, the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Federated Cat Clubs of America--the unlikely joint beneficiaries of her enormous estate. At the same time he comes to grip with his latent homosexuality. This first in a mystery series is followed by: Eye Contact (1999), Body Language (1999), Night Games (2000), Boy Toy (2001), Hot Spot (2002), and Bitch Slap (2004).

Soviet Sources, by Robert Cullen. Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990.
When veteran Washington reporter and Moscow correspondent Colin Burke's source reveals a KGB coup in the works his status changes from Pulitzer Prize candidate to target. Cornered with an explosive secret, Burke is left wondering which source he can trust. Followed by: Cover Story (1994); Dispatch From a Cold Country (1996); Heirs of the Fire (1997)

The Alpine Advocate, by Mary Daheim. Ballantine, 1992.
Who says crime is the stigma of big city living? Emma Lord is the publisher-editor of a weekly newspaper in the small Pacific Northwest lumber town of Alpine, Washington, has her hands full dealing with all manner of murderous mayhem. This part-time sleuth is ably aided by town Historian (and hopeless gossip), Vida Runkel, and less ably by taciturn Sheriff, Milo Dodge. Followed by: The Alpine Christmas (1993), The Alpine Betrayal (1993), The Alpine Decoy (1994), The Alpine Escape (1995), The Alpine Fury (1995), The Alpine Gamble (1996), The Alpine Icon (1997), The Alpine Hero (1997), The Alpine Journey (1998), The Alpine Legacy (1999), The Alpine Kindred (1999), The Alpine Menace (2000), The Alpine Nemesis (2001), The Alpine Obituary (2002), The Alpine Pursuit (2004), The Alpine Quilt (2005), The Alpine Recluse (2006), and The Alpine Scandal (2007).

Black and White and Dead All Over, by John Denton. Knopf, 2008.
When the tyrannical editor of a struggling newspaper is brutally murdered, a young, ambitious female NYPD detective teams up with a rebellious reporter to sift through the very long list of suspects.

The Paperboy, by Pete Dexter. Random House, 1995.
Miami Times reporter Ward James, along with his unscrupulous partner, Yardley Achemon, returns home to a Florida backwater to investigate the case of a death-row murderer, spurred on by a floozy who believes in the man's innocence.

Another City, Not My Own, by Dominick Dunne. Crown, 1997.
Writer and journalist Gus Bailey, father of a murdered child and chronicler of justice-served or denied-becomes caught up in the O. J. Simpson trial.

Blue Rain, by Chuck Freadhoff. HarperCollins, 1999.
After a body is found in the Mojave Desert, powerful people want to kill the news story and the reporter tracking it.

Cityside, by William Heffernan. Morrow, 1999.
In 1970s New York City reporter Billy Burke must choose between writing a potential Pulitzer Prize-winning expose of a hospital's negligence or pulling the plug on his paper's greed.

Maximum Impact, by Jean Heller. Forge, 1993
Steve Pace is a reporter for the Washington Chronicle specializing in airline disasters. When an airliner equipped with a supposedly crash-proof jet engine goes down in flames and 300 lives are lost, he is shocked by the official explanation blaming a bird flying into the jet's intake and knows that the evidence doesn't stack up. Regardless of the risks, Pace begins his own investigation but the closer he gets to the truth, the faster people begin to die.

The Last City Room, by Al Martinez. St. Martin's, 2000.
On his first night on the job with the once well regarded but now fading San Francisco Herald, reporter William Colfax ends up covering a bombing at the Federal Building. His articles eventually win him a Pulitzer Prize, but Colfax soon finds himself caught in the middle between the paper's reactionary, bigoted publisher, Jeremy Lincoln Stafford III and the radical leaders ascending to power in the city.

The Last Laugh, by John R. Riggs. Dembner, 1984.
Some days Garth Ryland, the owner/editor of rural Oakalla, Wisconsin's weekly newspaper has to dig high and low for anything newsworthy to print. Not so when Si Buckles, the town's practical joker, dies. After attending the funeral, Garth finds a note at his house that says "Si Buckles lives." Shortly thereafter, a friend of Si's kills himself for no apparent reason, followed by the suicide of a third man. Garth is determined to find answers to the deaths, even though his ill-tempered but wise housekeeper, Ruth Krammes, advises him that some mysteries are best left unsolved. Followed by: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie (1986), The Glory Hound (1987), Haunt of the Nightingale (1988), Wolf in Sheep's Clothing (1989), One Man's Poison (1991), Dead Letter (1992), A Dragon Lives Forever (1992), Killing Frost (1995), Cold Hearts and Gentle People (1995), Snow on the Roses (1996), He Who Waits (1997), and The Lost Scout (1998), .

The Best Laid Plans, by Sidney Sheldon. Morrow, 1997.
America's two most powerful and ruthless institutions-the world of politics and the world of newspaper publishing collide when Oliver Russell, the handsome governor of a small southern state, makes a run at the White House and Leslie Stewart vows to make him wish he had never been born.

Panic on Page One, by Linda Stewart. Delacorte, 1979.
Dashing but ruthless press tycoon "Trip" Crawford sees the panic caused by a psychopath killing young women in Los Angeles as the means of revitalizing his failing newspaper. The daily sensationalism of the violent crime seems to egg the killer on but sends his circulation figures soaring. Where does news reporting end and gross exploitation begin?

Murder at the Washington Tribune, by Margaret Truman. Ballantine, 2005.
When two young women, both of them connected to the news media, are found murdered in the nation's capital, Joe Wilcox, a disillusioned Washington Tribune crime reporter under pressure his editor to produce new stories whether or not there are new developments, invents a serial killer on the loose. Coincidentally (or not0, Joe's long-lost brother Michael, who has spent years in an Illinois mental institution, shows up to renew acquaintances.

Flint's Gift, by Richard S. Wheeler. Forge, 1997.
In 1877, young editor Sam Flint arrives in the frontier community of Payday where his fledgling newspaper makes him lots of friends and a few enemies. Armed with only his words, he dispenses his own form of frontier justice. Followed by Flint's Truth (1998) and Flint's Honor (1999)

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