I received this ARC via Netgalley and Spyhop Publishing, in return for an honest review. This YA mystery is the first book in a new series. While the protagonist, Kate March, is fictitious, the author uses the real, unsolved murder of William Desmond Taylor to create the early 1920s Hollywood. Kate is 17 and wants to be an investigative journalist at her family’s financially-challenged business. When circumstances put Kate in the know with those connected to Taylor’s murder, she uses her skills to gain more information and hone her skills as a journalist. Ms. Adams, the author, also ties in other events that impacted people’s lives in that time, like the death of Kate’s brothers in WWI and the subsequent abandonment by Kate’s mother. Kate has a good friend, Addy, who serves as her sidekick and a returned-from-the-war neighbor, Nicky, who is now working at the LAPD. This series has a good start and it will be interesting to learn where Kate ventures next.

This is an awesome book that was read super super quickly; I'd definitely recommend this to any lover of mystery and history. Full review linked below.

A YA murder mystery set in the roaring 20s…yes, please! This follows a teenager named Kate that happens to be at the right place and the right time when the murder victim is found. She wants to be a respected journalist for her family owned newspaper but finds she is quite good at being a detective. She has unconventional ways to solve a murder and haphazardly finds her way to the killer! What a great way to start a series. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

A delightful noire mystery set in 1920s Los Angeles and featuring a heroine with a fresh voice. I thoroughly enjoyed Speak Easy and look forward to more from this series.

Special thanks to NetGalley for sharing this free digital copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This book was a fantastically plotted mystery! Scandalously delicious: Miss Fisher meets Nancy Drew crossed with China Blues. Such a fun and sassy murder mystery. I am so glad I read this one. It kept me guessing the whole time.

This book is about a girl(Katharine Ann March) who aspires to be a reporter. When film director William Desmond Taylor is shot in the back, Kate takes it upon herself to investigate the crime.
Trust me, you would have never come across such a bold protagonist who has a penchant for trouble and also proves to be an exceptional investigator.
I think it managed to hold itself and remain interesting and engaging owing to its fresh voice and clever writing.
My only complaint is that it was a bit lengthy and some details could have been left out, Otherwise. there really isn't much I didn't enjoy.

Lori Adams’ Speak Easy had me laughing one moment and on the edge of the seat the next. The amazing mix of humor and suspense will have you flipping the pages like crazy. I can’t wait to read more of this author's works.

Speak Easy is a murder mystery about a 17 year old girl who is struggling through the last few months of high school while trying to save her father's news paper business. She discovers the murder of a famous actor which leads to her investigating and eventually becoming a suspect herself. The story flashes back and forth between the past as she investigates, and the present when she is being interviewed by the detective as a suspect herself.

While I did enjoy this book, I teach middle school and this book is better suited to older students. It does address several heavy topics such as World War, parental abandonment, murder, relationships with older men, speakeasies, racial inequality, etc.

The story takes place during the Roaring 20's which is fun. The author uses period appropriate terms which is entertaining but I could also see this making comprehension a little more difficult for some students. For example juice joint, Good Time Charlie, dewdropper, and phosphate cola.

I was allowed to read this book as an ARC, but I just finished it after it was published.

What draw me to the book was the cover and the description. A book set in the 1920's, flappertime and a young lady who wants nothing more than being a reporter in a world full of men and help her father's newspaper company. So, Kate March, our protagonist, is a girl who dresses in boys clothes, wants to break from the standard and even thinks about becoming "Modern". So when Famed film director, William Desmond Taylor, has been shot in the back, and Kate has the inside scoop, she goes full into the investigation. Suspicious, late night visits to Taylor’s home, drug connections, false identities draw her attention to it, much to the annoyance of the Los Angeles Police Department.

I really loved the character of Kate. We woman nowadays get a lot og chances in men's worlds. Certainly there is still room for improvement, but when reading a book set in the 1920's you see the difference. I also enjoyed the writing style a lot, at the beginning of each chapter you read Kate sitting in an interrogation room with one of the detectives so you really step right into it all! I had no idea who did it and why, so that's always good! I recommend this book, especially if you are into historical Cozies.

3.5 stars.
Kate March, precocious seventeen-year old and budding investigative reporter, aiming for a career writing for "The Messenger", the long-running newspaper and family-owned business. When she finds out that "The Messenger" is in trouble financially, she knows they need a story to set them apart from all their competitors. And one practically falls in her lap, when she hears of the death of a Hollywood cinema director, William Desmond Taylor. It's the era and silent films, and Kate, living in L.A., knows an actress, Mary Miles Minter, who is involved in what turns out to be a case with lots of interest, from its Hollywood director and the stars he knew well, the salacious rumours and behaviour of Hollywood actors and actresses, and the way this behaviour somehow keeps getting hushed up by L.A.'s District Attorney.
Kate takes it upon herself to visit the crime scene before any of her competitors' reporters, and uses her connection to Mary, and her intelligence, ability to think on her feet and burning need to save the family business, to uncover a mess of motives, messy behaviours of the parties involved, and lots of secrets before discovering the killer.

I had not realized many of the people referenced in this book were real, and this was a real murder case in 1922 Los Angeles that remains unsolved. I really liked how author Lori Adams wove in the facts with Kate's activities, and gave her a friend equally in love with snooping/sleuthing, Addy, to help Kate get in and out of some sticky situations.
Adams also deals with the pain of loss from WW1: two of Kate's brothers were killed in combat, and Kate's mother abandoned the family after news of her sons' deaths. Kate is still grieving and holds a lot of anger about her mother's abandonment, while one of her neighbours, who is also a policeman, is dealing with his own bad memories from the War, and these elements are also woven into this mystery.

The pace is pretty good, with Kate moving through L.A. as she searches for clues and interviews people. I liked the period detail, and though this probably wasn't intended, I was reminded of the movie "Double Indemnity" as the story is told with Kate in an interrogation room with one of the Detectives on the case; she relates all her actions in her investigation in a series of flashbacks.

As a first novel in a series, I think the author sets up the main character and her friends well, and I might be persuaded to read Kate's next adventure.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Spyhop Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my review.

The jazz age seems to be a popular choice for historical mysteries lately, and Lori Adams does a good job with it in this YA novel. Mostly this because she doesn't forget what came just before the Roaring Twenties - World War I, or, as it was known at the time, the Great War. Heroine Kate lost both of her older brothers in the war, which resulted in the breakup of her family, her mother packing and leaving without a word. In an attempt to feel closer to her lost brothers, Kate has begun dressing in their clothes (a style known as "boyette," although the term isn't used here, possibly because it can have lesbian implications) and is determined to become a top reporter on her father's newspaper. It isn't entirely clear if she always harbored this ambition or if she's trying to fill in for her brothers, but it hardly matters once she ends up covering a murder.

The mystery is based on a real-life case, the murder of William Desmond Taylor, and Kate's solution is basically the author's thoughts on the crime. This is on the darker side of YA, although it's not <i>quite</i> New Adult, and Kate does manage to get herself into a lot of trouble. But that does help with the caper feel, something nicely driven home by the writing style and the fact that much of the story takes place in flashback while present-Kate is sitting in the police department being interrogated. While this isn't the best YA murder mystery I've read, it is a good one and ultimately the flaws - some language feels like it's trying too hard, Nicky is a difficult character - are outweighed by the atmosphere and clear fun the author had in writing this.

Kate March is a precocious high school senior, following in her father's footsteps to become an intrepid reporter. Early one morning Kate gets a scoop: a famous Hollywood director has been found dead inside his home. Not only is Kate the first reporter on the scene, she gets there just in time for the police to find out that death was brought about by a bullet to the back.

The case is terribly complex. Before homicide was deemed to be the manner of death, dozens of employees, coworkers, friends, and neighbors traipsed through the crime scene, removing items from the house and trampling all over the room where William Desmond Taylor met his maker. Evidence was hard to come by so Kate could only question witnesses and put together the tiniest inconsistencies in their stories until she figured out who was to blame.

Though this book was significantly longer than the average cozy mystery, there was a moment of lag in the entire thing. Kate was on the razors edge of the action from page one until it was over. Though the story took place over the course of around two weeks, Kate went from a rambunctious high school girl to a sophisticated Modern female reporter. There were so many subplots and so many backstories that different angles of the story could be fleshed out for many books to come.

Kate can be a bit frustrating as she digs herself into one hole after another no matter how much her father and her neighbor and local police officer Nicky Masino beg her not to get involved. Despite that, you can't help but root her on and acknowledge that in her shoes I'd have done the same thing. Addy makes a great sidekick, she's adventurous but level-headed and well-connected. Mr. Morgan added some spice to the story, especially at the end.

I find the 1920's fascinating and this book gives you a whirlwind ride through what was probably one of the most interesting places in the United States during that time. Showing that time and place through the lens of a young woman getting ready to go out into the world and trying to decide who she wanted to be made it even more interesting. I also thought tackling the unsolved mystery of the murder of William Desmond Taylor was exciting, especially since the author identified the killer as having been the person I always thought seemed to have been the most likely suspect. Another thing I enjoyed was the back and forth timeline. Not all authors can pull this off but for me it read like a movie, where we're seeing the current time at the beginning of each chapter and then flashing back to the past. It worked really well and built suspense throughout the story.

This book was excellent and as you're reading I highly recommend checking out some of the movies that are mentioned in the book and the actors that appear in the story; there are lots of old movies from this era available online that will allow you to see the actors and actresses at work. I look forward to reading more in this series!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

I had to DNF this book after 5 charters and 21% into the book.

I really wanted to like this book since I love reading historical mysteries. However, the book never got my attention and I had to read some parts over and over because my mind went somewhere else. I am sure there is someone who would like this book more than me and even if the target audience is young adult I think this is mature enough to also be read by an older crowd.

I did like that the young heroin was strong and did what she wanted even if people at that time didn’t think it would fit a young woman.

What I didn’t like was the jumping between time lines in the beginning of every chapter and that the story was boring and didn’t intrigue me.

I really enjoyed this novel. It’s considered young adult but was mature enough to appeal to adult readers like myself. I found the novel very well written keeping me interested in both the characters themselves and the main story line. Lots of twist and turns kept me guessing until the very end. I definitely recommend this novel for both young adult and also adult mystery readers. It’s a very entertaining and an overall solid read!

This reminded me of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries which is why I was eager to read it. I stopped at the 20% mark because I could not get into the story. There were so many details that were tediously explained and the story hadn't intrigued me by that point. I also did not like how each chapter started with the present before switching back to the past. Thank you for giving me the chance to read this.