Broadcast Blues -- Don't Mess with a Midlife Reporter (Thriller Book Review)

 There are milestones, and then there are...well, milestones.

 

Most of us likely share the same ones—no matter what order they actually occur.

 

First kiss. Losing our virginity. Getting a driver’s license. Graduating. Getting our own place. Getting married (or entering some type of long-term relationship). 

 

And then, there are birthdays. Perhaps the biggest milestones, of all... despite the meaninglessness one day actually makes, of course. From 29 to 30... 39 to 40... 49 to 50 (etc.).

 

For whatever reason(s), we’ve somehow arbitrarily agreed that the beginning of a new decade signals a new Big Scary Awful. 

 

And it’s with that looming in her mind—the impossible idea of turning 50(!!)—that TV newswoman Clare Carlson happens upon an equally-explosive story, in R.G. Belsky’s latest entry in the series, Broadcast Blues.

 

 

When Clare hears that some sort of explosive detonated in a car in Manhattan—killing Wendy Kyle, a female private detective (and formerly an NYPD officer), in spectacularly-horrific form, in the process—she knows it’ll be a huge story.

 

Several years earlier, Wendy had been involved in a #metoo-type scandal while on the force, making sexual harassment charges against some of her male coworkers. Then, when things were settled/swept under the rug, she’d gone off on her own, setting up her own P.I. business, where she catered to other women who were being mistreated (cheating spouses, harassment, etc.).

 

To say that Wendy had a few people who might well wish her ill, well... that would be quite an understatement. In life, she was polarizing. Someone—a woman, more specifically—determined to damned well take her rightful place in the world.

 

Clare is intrigued, on so many levels. Wendy was clearly a take-no-BS sorta gal... but Clare wonders if anger—a need to get back at men who used or abused women—was the main reason behind Wendy’s change of career... or if other factors she’s unaware of, played even moreimportant roles.

 

Whatever the case, Clare isn’t about to be deterred in her quest to uncover the truth behind Wendy’s untimely death... no matter how many Very Important People attempt to get in her way and keep her from doing just that.

 

 

This—surprisingly!—was my first time out with Clare Carlson, and I’ve gotta say, I one-hundred-percent wanna hang out with her again.

 

Ballsy, cheeky, whip-smart, and witty, she’s a fun character to hang around with on her exploits around Manhattan... while still being an entirely relatable presence. (She’s midlife—apparently, with a formerly-long-estranged daughter she’s only recently reconnected with, as well as numerous exes that hang about in the periphery—and her struggles at work, with relationships (or “whatever-ships”), and, well... pretty much everything—ring oh-so-true.)

 

Does she figure out the “5 Ws and an H” of journalism 101 (who-what-when-where-why-and-how)... keep her job (always a thing, once you’re a woman “of a certain age”, in the news business)... get her story on the nightly news... AND enjoy a celebratory cocktail (or three)? 

 

Well, yeah... but my advice is to pick up and tune in to Belsky’s Broadcast Blues to see exactly how it all shakes out, folks.

 

Broadcast Blues is a humdinger... and you don’t wanna miss it. 

~GlamKitty

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