Molly Owens from California journalism has upped stakes with her degree and experience and moved to slower paced Britton Bay on the Oregon Coast. Here she's hoping to revitalise a family-run local paper and improve its web circulation figures. The Britton Bay Bulletin has a small staff, including young interns, old crusts and the polite but occupied boss. What the paper needs is DEADLY NEWS to grab headlines, but that can't be manufactured.

Clara Phillips Black, the mayor's wife, gives Molly a warmer welcome than some of her jaded co-workers. The staff don't like new energy, making them work harder on the same old same old. The townsfolk, on the other hand, are delighted to have a new face in the diner. Except for whoever it was who let the air out of Molly's tyres. Naughty, naughty. Some city folks would be deterred, but Molly is made of sterner stuff. She was an army brat and has moved to many towns and dealt with many strange situations.

This twist on the small newspaper is absolutely topical. So many papers are closing, as advertising dwindles and people turn to the web for news. How to stay relevant and important to their readership? Jody Holford has hit a nerve. Even as Molly enjoys the real home cooking and salt spray air, we notice the lack of people sitting reading newsprint.

Molly may not have got on well with craggy, cross Vernon East, the staff reporter, but she wasn't expecting to find him dead at his home. The shock knocks her silly, and while she tries to aid the police, maybe this shock accounts for Molly's not mentioning a box of interview photos Vernon had, to the police, but attempting a break-in that evening to find them. I can't account for this extremely odd behavior any other way. If the photos were evidence of any sort she'd be tampering with evidence and removing a vital lead; if they were not related, the police would release them quickly. A good character is Sam Alderich who used his business degree to open a garage and seems keen to impress a pretty young woman who isn't a relative, unlike most ladies in town. I also like Hannah, the intern, who runs the school newspaper and is thrilled to have real assignments. And Tigger, a friendly pup in need of a home. But as problems mount for Molly, the close gaze of townsfolk becomes claustrophobic. Author Jody Holford has broken ground for her Britton Bay Mystery series, and I'm hoping DEADLY NEWS will be the first of many books.