Rick Mofina: The Dying Hour

Jason Wade – rookie crime reporter interning at the Seattle Mirror. He’s young, brash and determined. It’s the disappearance of college student Karen Harding that snares him, and he runs with it.

With a disarming manner he draws out witnesses and friends, tugging at the slim threads of information they offer, and following each one as far as it will go.

He persuades the investigators to bend just enough to help him, while in return providing the kind of personal details people are often reluctant to share with police agencies. It’s a win/win for all parties.

There’s tough competition inside the newsroom as there are several candidates for the one intern position. Some look down at Wade’s blue collar background, but he refuses to give up.

Harding’s disappearance is the doorway into a darker case that he’s determined to solve. He just didn’t count on the religious obsession and sacrifice part.

The Dying Hour is a gripping start to the Jason Wade Series: a dark, urgent thriller. I would even coin it as a ‘reporter procedural’, and a quite good read at that. Well recommended.