When controversial talk show host Larry Lemmon dies under mysterious circumstances, local reporter Jolene pursues the story – and gets in over her head in the case itself.
At some point, like most people who enjoy writing, I considered journalism as a career path, though I quickly realized I was nowhere near as persistent and unafraid of failure as the job requires. This book, written by a long-time reporter, only reinforced this.
The mystery interested me off the bat – the poisoning of far-right radio talk show host, with a plethora of suspects from both his professional and personal lives. The way we meet suspects as Jolene pursues interviews with a number of unpleasant people reminded me of watching an episode of Criminal Minds. It was also fun to get a behind the scenes peek into how reporters pursue stories, and how news stations are grappling with the changing industry.
However, the book really didn’t work for me on one major level – I didn’t like Jolene. I’m aware that in such a cutthroat industry one must be pushy when pursuing leads, but Jolene’s complete ignorance about why people might feel miffed about being accused of murder on air or ambushed after a funeral was not very endearing. She’s flatly characterized despite an interesting backstory – a love of Wheel of Fortune cannot make up for a lack of personality otherwise!
The actual mystery solving also takes a very long time to get off the ground, with the first really substantial clues popping up in the last quarter of the book, after which we barrel toward a denouement. And while I enjoyed the occasional segue into Phoenix history, the passages sometimes felt shoehorned in, interrupting the flow of the story too much.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
