Old News: An Edna Ferber Mystery

Set in 1923, Ifkovic’s middling eighth Edna Ferber mystery (after 2016’s Cold Morning) takes real-life author Ferber, who’s working on her novel So Big, and her mother, Julia, to Chicago, to visit an old friend of Julia’s, Esther Newmann. Living next door to Esther is the stunningly beautiful Leah Brenner, who recently returned home to Chicago after spending years in a women’s asylum because the authorities believed she murdered her husband, Ivan. Intrigued by the nearby presence of a murderer, Edna can’t help asking questions about that day in 1908, when Leah allegedly went mad and plunged a knife into Ivan’s neck. Edna’s snooping uncovers questions that have never been answered, such as what happened to the murder weapon. Edna, comfortable to be an unmarried professional woman, is an appealing narrator, but even her wry, observant humor can’t save the plodding mystery, with its tired plot device of the beautiful woman as pariah. Did Leah really kill Ivan? When the unsurprising conclusion finally comes, readers likely won’t care. (Mar.)