Author R.G. Belsky knows the news business and his fictional protagonist, Clare Carlson, is a news director for a New York City television station. Broadcast Blues is the sixth installment in the popular and award-winning series that debuted in 2018 with Yesterday’s News. Belsky has published subsequent volumes annually, all of which can be enjoyed as stand-alone mysteries. In total, Belsky has penned twenty novels set in New York City and centered around the media world (he also writes thrillers as Dana Perry). He enjoyed a long career in news, serving as the editor of the New York Post, New York Daily News, Star Magazine, and the managing editor of news for NBCNews.com. He is a contributing writer for The Big Thrill magazine.

But Belsky is quick to point out that writing with too much authenticity and making fictional mysteries too realistic and believable “can sometimes be . . . well, boring.” His career “was never anything like Clare’s,” he relates. “Clare’s story is a lot more interesting than mine. Or any other real-life journalist who goes through the day-to-day drudgery without all the excitement in Clare’s world.”

As Broadcast Blues opens, Clare is about to celebrate her fiftieth birthday and having a bit of an existential crisis about that. She is a thrice-divorced mother of one daughter, Lucy (aka Linda), with whom she only developed a relationship when Lucy was twenty-five years old. She also has a granddaughter, Emily. She has enjoyed a lengthy, successful career in television news. She currently serves as both the news director and an on-air reporter. But the news industry is changing and the station where she works, Channel 10, is being sold. All of the employees, including Clare, are worried about their futures under new ownership. And for Clare, the newsroom is not just her place of employment. It is her “true home. My sanctuary.” She is convinced that what she really needs to prevent being a casualty of the station’s new management taking the newsroom in a new direction is a really big story. To say that she is not on good terms with Susan Endicott, the executive producer of Channel 10 news (whose own job might well be on the chopping block once the sale is finalized), is an understatement. Belsky aptly describes Susan as a “loathsome woman,” “egotistical and ambitious,” and her treatment of Clare is inexcusably despicable. But they form an uneasy alliance in the interest of mutual self-preservation. Because if Clare can demonstrate her continuing value to the station, the job she loves deeply may be secure. And Susan may still be employed, as well, so Clare figures it is in her best interests to maintain a collegial, if not friendly, relationship with her. Outwardly, at least.

Sure enough, “the news gods” plunk a big story right in Clare’s proverbial lap. Wendy Kyle, a thirty-two-year-old former police officer whose two marriages both ended in divorce, operated Heartbreak Investigations, specializing in high-profile divorce cases, primarily scandalous ones. She often testified in court about her findings. She ran ads proclaiming, “We Catch Cheats for You,” promising to secure evidence that a husband or lover was unfaithful with a technique she called The Honey Trap. Wendy was killed instantly when she got into her car, which was parked in front of her Times Square office – right in the heart of Manhattan – and it exploded. The police naturally suspect that her murder is related to one of the cases she was handling.

Clare immediately reports Wendy’s death. Fortunately, she has a source within the NYPD – her third ex-husband, Sam Markham, just happens to be a homicide sergeant and they have remained on good terms. But it’s a dead end. Curiously, Sam is not involved in the investigation. “It’s being handled by people at the top – way above my paygrade,” he tells her. But Sam did hear some scuttlebutt. Wendy kept a diary, and one page was recovered from her office in which she referenced Ronald Bannister, a billionaire whose wife may have retained Wendy. Clare’s investigation is underway.

Clare is a savvy and tenacious journalist who has developed many connections and sources over the years, along with techniques and maneuvers that are highly effective and at times border on unethical. But she knows how to push the boundaries without eradicating them. She is also self-assured, competent, and frequently sarcastic and a bit caustic. Her first-person narrative reveals her thought processes, frustrations, and machinations. It is candid, sometimes self-deprecating and, at times, hilarious. She is self-aware and not proud of the fact that all of her marriages failed. She discovers details about Wendy’s law enforcement career, including the fact that Wendy’s ouster was preceded by her filing complaints of sexual harassment and police corruption, and finds herself empathizing with Wendy, who was both a heroic officer who volunteered at and supported a women’s homeless shelter, and a hot-head who was disciplined for defying authority and engaging in a physical altercation with the man she accused of harassing her in the workplace. Clare observes that Wendy was “a paradox. A talented woman who couldn’t keep her mouth shut and walk away from trouble when she should. I suppose I identified with her a bit because I knew I had some of those same qualities, good and bad.” The more Clare learns about Wendy’s history, business, and what may have motivated her murder, the more intent Clare becomes on finding her killer, reporting on salient developments in the case as her inquiry proceeds.

Belsky surrounds Clare with a colorful and intriguing cast of supporting characters. Janet Wood is her best friend. A successful lawyer, happily married with two daughters, is “very sane and logical . . . like my exact opposite,” Clare explains. But their friendship is unconditional, and Janet offers Clare wise counsel, as well as support and honesty. Clare also respects and turns to Jack Faron, her former boss, from whom she seeks advice “about tricky situations.” She admits to Janet that she is still attracted to and thinking a lot about Scott Manning, an FBI agent with whom she had an off-and-on-again extramarital affair. Reaching out to him for information is risky because she is not currently involved with a man and rather lonely. She is tempted to rekindle her relationship with him, but he is still married, and Clare is not without a conscience. Skirting the edges of journalistic integrity, she enlists the help of enigmatic computer hacker Todd, who has appeared in previous installments.

Belsky has crafted a clever, multi-layered, and action-packed mystery, introducing additional characters and surprising revelations about their potential connections to Wendy’s murder at an unrelenting pace. As Clare moves closer to uncovering the motive for Wendy’s killing, she encounters others who are frantically attempting to destroy the evidence of those links. Wealthy, powerful, and influential characters will do whatever is required to conceal the truth in order to preserve their lifestyles and see their plans come to fruition. That includes terminating Clare’s investigation by any means necessary. Belsky deftly ramps up the dramatic tension as Clare finds herself in danger.

Broadcast Blues is suspenseful, absorbing, and entertaining. Clare is endearingly flawed and, in many respects, relatable and empathetic. She loves her career but is fully cognizant of how youth-oriented television news is. And she is facing an upcoming milestone birthday just when her future with Channel 10 hangs in the balance and Lucy is navigating a crisis of her own. Clare demonstrates a willingness to take potentially lethal chances in order to not only ensure that Wendy’s killer is held to account for the crime but ensure her own continued relevance in the process. But at Clare’s age, what does it mean to be relevant in television news? And what is the cost of relevance and an unremitting devotion to chasing news stories? Clare seeks answers to those and other important questions as she ponders the next phase of her life and assesses her priorities. Belsky provides a thoroughly satisfying conclusion that will leave readers anxious to read the next volume to see how Clare’s choices work out.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book. ( )

Book # 6 in the Clare Carlson mystery

This mystery about a TV newswoman Clare Carlson held me captive from the opening pages. What a refreshing and captivating read. It starts with a bang when an explosive device planted in a car detonates killing Wendy Kyle, a private investigator catering to women who suspected their husbands of cheating. Undoubtedly Wendy had angered many people with her work: the list of suspects is endless. Clare knows it will be a huge story for her and sets out to find the truth.

What a page-turner this turned out to be, once started I simply couldn’t put it down. The story is witty, clever and mostly engaging. We are taken on a wild cat and mouse chase through the streets of New York while a television reporter provides us with a fascinating lens into the media along with the murder case. The pacing and plotting are excellent. In fact you couldn’t ask for a more exciting drama. Clare is smart, spunky and persistent: once she gets a scoop she is like a Pitbull she will never let go till she says so. I like the tone it makes you feel part of the TV newsroom with all its craziness and back stabbing.

With its snappy dialog and exciting plot “Broadcast Blues” is one of my favourite mysteries I read this year. Have no fear if you haven’t read the previous installment this one stand solid by itself.

This ARC was provided by Oceanview Publishing via Netgalley ( )

mystery, thriller, TV personality, news-media, series, NYC, investigative-journalist, investigations, law-enforcement, crime-thriller, suspense, secrets, lies, murder, murder-investigation, journalism, integrity, witty*****

Snappy dialog and a fast moving plot make this a great read and fully capable of standing alone (I haven't read any others in series). We closely follow professional newshound Clare Carlson as she gets into the investigation of the murder by car bomb of a high profile ex-cop/private investigator and all the intrigue that goes along with it. The details are clear, the characters lively, and the whole thing kept me on track right to the end. Great!
I requested and received an EARC from Oceanview Publishing via NetGalley. ( )