What do You think about Goodnight, Irene (2002)?
The bombing death of best friend and journalist O'Connor shocks Irene Kelly, herself an investigative reporter, into pursuing his last story--the as-yet-unsolved mutilation murder of a young woman back in 1955. Kelly collaborates with former flame Detective Harriman in her desire to identify the woman, but not without experiencing murder attempts, car chases, and a return of affection. Level-headed and unflappable, heroine Irene stands poised for a promising new series, despite the guessable villain and a lapse or two in dialog.
—Catherine Woodman
The start of a series that starts out good and only gets better (except for kidnapped, that one is weird). Irene Kelley made her way into the newspaper business--despite the sexism and barriers in front of women--, at a southern California city paper, but left it for the PR business because of the abusive and controlling atmosphere brought on by the boss/editor. When her old mentor at the paper is murdered, she uses her skills to uncover the why and the who and decides to be a reporter again. A strong, likeable wiseass for a hero and a good mystery make this ace. Keep reading the series, and her one-offs, because Burke just gets better.
—Ryan Mishap
One morning, after a night of drinking together, Irene's friend is killed by an exploding package on his porch. He was a journalist covering a mayoral campaign funding story. It was also coming up on the anniversary of a Jane Doe who had died unidentified many years ago. He wrote about "Hannah", and others like her, yearly in the hopes of solving old crimes. Irene used to be a reporter and returns to take his job to see if she can help police find his killer. She soon finds herself in danger so she must be on the right track. All of O'Connor's notes are written in code. It appears that finding Hannah's identity may have gotten him killed. Irene also has some family drama with her sister and her worthless boyfriend. Irene tries to follow the clues to finally find out Hannah's real name without losing her life and who needed to keep it hidden.
—Jennifer
