Someone is stalking a radio presenter because of past events, events that she wants to keep hidden from everyone, and that she thinks no one should know about. Why? What happened? 

This story is revealed well as the stalking goes up several levels, and tension is built. A fun and enjoyable read with plenty of tension, and a good ending which involved an interesting twist. This worked well as an audiobook, although not the most engaging of narrators.

Happy to recommend this book on balance. I would like to say thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing a copy of this book to me for an open and honest review.  3.5 Stars

This is a hard review for me. On one hand, I enjoyed the book and thought it was decently thought out. On the other hand, It wasn't that hard to figure out. The first little bit had the creepy stalker factor, where you get bits and pieces of what the people are thinking and little hints about who the person could be. It wasn't too long before you knew. Some of the happenings in the book seemed excessive for "what happened at The Shallows", it spiked real quick... 

The "relationship" Kaitlyn and the older male detective had and how they came to a deeper understanding of each other as the story went on was the best part of the book. Though even that was a bit messy at one point. I really didn't care at all about any of the characters though and it made they story seem to drag a bit.

The audio narration was done well. There wasn't a lot of excitement in the vocals, but it seemed to go along with the book itself. I'd be interested to check out some of Bradley's other work to see if it matches this book or if it's a little better. 

Thank you to CamCat Publishig and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF - tried on various occasions but struggled with the narrator and had no interest in the story itself.

With thanks to CamCat Publishing, LLC, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) and NetGalley for the ARC.

Well read, suspenseful drama.

Full review to follow...

Have not had a chance to read this yet, but will keep it on my list for a rainy day! Appreciate being offered the reading copy!

Dead Air sounded like my kind of listen, but it just didn't work out for me at all. The premise has been done and done again, so I was hoping to find something to make it stand out against so many others like it. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything to make it memorable unless you count that it drags more than I cared for. It's also terribly predictable. I do read a lot of mysteries and thrillers, but the stalker/killer in this one is so obvious, I hardly think it would take any experience with the genre to figure it out. On a semi-positive note, the narrator does a fair job, at least she does okay with Kaitlyn, and she does have a distinctive purr that would work well for a DJ. However, the male voices, or the attempt at male voices, left something to be desired. Any one of those things may have been okay if the rest had been at least a little above average, but this just fell short all the way around for me.

The premise of this book is great.  A radio dj trying to escape her past when it comes back to bite her.  There was a lot of suspense and action, but there were a lot of times when I got really frustrated with Kaitlyn and Rodney.  There were so many things that pointed to who the big baddie was and they both completely overlooked them. Sometimes I just wanted to smack them.  I thought the narrator was ok, but not the best that I've heard.

Dead Air- personally I think The Shallows would have been a more fitting title however I could not get enough of it! 
Thank you Net Galley for this audio book- made me anticipate the next time I’d be behind the wheel. 
—
Caitlin Ash is the evening talk show host for WXLP radio. Friday nights are dedication night- and for the past few months her worst nightmare.  Why? 
Because someone keeps requesting REO speed wagon- dedication from The Shallows. 
Caitlin can’t believe anyone knows about the shallows.  The one person who does is dead. 
As her mystery dedicator escalates their stalking Caitlin past collides with her current life- which leaves a bloody path in its wake.  
While to me Caitlin's stalker/ tormentor was beyond obvious  - another plot twist left me slack jawed driving home one night! 

This was a great  audio book to listen too- although I will admit sometimes they narrator sounded a bit too robotic for me. 
Hope to see more work from this author!

Thank you to Netgalley and CamCat Publishing for the advanced copy of this audiobook. 
I liked the premise from the get-go.  I really liked the main character being a radio DJ and loved how that was incorporated into the story and into the mystery. Otherwise, I didn't love this book.
Firstly - something that I hate 99% of the time - the cliché villain. The audiobook didn't help this, but I just hate when the antagonist is this exagerrated, dramatic, evil character. Obviously it has its purpose, but it was mostly just annoying. 
To be clear, I have no problem with unrealistic books - most of my favourites are a little unrealistic - but there were bits in this that just grated on me.  I think there's a big difference between an unrealistic element to advance the plot and using an unrealistic element without purpose and there were definitely a couple of times where I thought these parts could've either been changed or entirely removed. 
I guessed the anatagonist's identity VERY early on. Once again, to be clear, I have no problem with predictable books, but in this one I felt it was a bit too blatant and as it became more and more obvious I just became more and more irritated with that character. It also bothered me a little that the main characters just weren't seeing it.
I also felt the characters were all a little two-dimensional; as mentioned, I liked the incorporation of the main character's occupation and the detail about Carol, but as far as depth goes that was kind of the full extent of it. It just felt a bit undercooked in that regard and unfortunately it meant that I didn't care much about the characters at all.
I actually really liked the writing style in this book. It was vivid but not dense and kept the story moving. I also thought the pacing was good and I finished it quickly.
I wouldn't not recommend this to anyone; maybe a thriller beginner might enjoy this more than I did - I just felt like the bulk of this mystery I'd read before.

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for the advance copy of this audiobook!

I loved this book. The atmosphere and plot was everything I wanted it to be. I loved the storyline in the book. I loved the characters. It gave me all the feels I was looking for when I started reading this. I highly recommend this author. I loved the writing. I will be looking for other works in the future from this author.

Dead Air follows a radio host who is being stalked by a mysterious individual who knows things about her past. This is a multi perspective story, with the stalker, a detective, and the radio host alternating chapters.

This was actually a really short read, with only about 9 hours a audio, but the narration did almost nothing for the story. The narrator speaks exceedingly slow, even for an audiobook, and I was able to listen to the story at 3 times speed! Usually my max is 2 times, with most audio at 1.5-1.75 speed.

Despite the length, within 1 audio hour I was not even close to interested in the story. If I wasn’t able to listen to it so fast I would definitely have just DNFed it. The story progresses so slowly, with very little actual intrigue and even the action portions went by so quickly I barely even noticed them. Even the creepy moments where the stalker is the POV character were not what I was looking for.

The characters were interesting, but no one was really developed through the novel and there were lots of moments for that development to occur. I also didn’t enjoy the predictability of the novel either, as it became clear very quickly that one character was the stalker perspective and still there were several moments full of intense foreshadowing.

Overall this was just completely uninteresting to me and I didn’t enjoy my time with it at all. The stalker archetype is done better in other books I’ve read (personal favourites are You by Caroline Kepnes or the recent release When I Was You by Amber Garza) I’m sad to say that I found my second one-star book for 2020

1 star

This book was interesting but I had a similar response to it that I do with a lot of books like it. I find male authors trying to write female main characters to be really grating. So many things were said/done by the main character that almost no woman would ever. The subject matter is really fascinating but it left me wanting something else.

After multiple attempts at this I’ve come to the conclusion I’m not going to finish this. Narration isn’t great, my mind keeps wandering out of boredom.

First of all, I want to thank NetGallery and Michael Bradley for allowing me to listen to this book.

Kaitlyn is a popular nighttime radio DJ in Philadelphia whose past is about to catch up to her.  She's changed her location and her name, but can she outrun the events that happened on that fateful night? Kaitlyn has been receiving letters from someone talking about "the shallows." Her friends and fiance are concerned for her, but Kaitlyn says she is fine even though she isn't telling the whole truth. Can she keep it together without incriminating herself and reliving the horrors that occurred? As far as Kaitlyn is concerned two people knew what happened in " the shallows" and one of them is dead. Could someone else know her secret? 

I really liked this book. I loved the NJ connections since that's where I live, and I loved how Michael kept you guessing who the bad guy was all the way to the very end. I was disappointed to see that sexual violence towards a woman took place on that fateful night. I'm not sure why thriller writers feel the need to include this in so many thrillers? Although this greatly disappointed me I would absolutely read future words from Michale. 

Thank you again!

A successful Radio DJ is receiving threatening letters, escalating in malice with every next one, and then the threats become physical. Who is it and why do they want to dig up the secret that has been buried with the dead for so many years.

This was a fun, thrilling ride. I was able to guess to the culprit halfway through, which is obviously not a good thing for murder mysteries, but I guess it was intentional because even with so many giveaways on who it really was, it was very gripping. It did get a bit dull towards the end, but I really liked the ending.

Told in three separate POVs, it’s an easy yet fast-paced popcorn thriller. I thought there were some irregularities with the police procedures mentioned above but I think it makes sense given that it’s set in a small town. I wasn’t much of a fan of the narration though, it was kinda monotonous and boring to hear, but the plot was interesting enough to keep me glued to my earphones. Predictable, but it still makes for a perfect beach read.

thanks to Netgalley, authors, and publishers for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Listened to this book an audiobook compliments of Netgalley.

The narrator was great and kept me glued to this book, and the story line was really good and flowed nicely.

My only complaint about this audiobook was that with about 3hours left to listen I had already figured out who was the bad guy was, otherwise I really enjoyed this book.

Kaitlyn Ashe, a DJ on the prime night slot in Philadelphia, has been getting the same letter every day. A threatening letter, comprising letters cut out from newspapers and magazines, that reminds her of something she did in the Shallows, where she lived when she was 16 years old and her name was Laura Hobson. The letters also ask her to play REO Speedwagon, a band whose music holds memories for her, a band she will never play again.

Having put that event behind her, and having reinvented herself after years of therapy, Kaitlyn is anxious not to have her secret outed. She keeps her past hidden from her boyfriend, Brad Ludlow, a hotshot lawyer, who has no idea that Kaitlyn is not who she claims to be. Meanwhile, her stalker is watching and planning their next move.

Kaitlyn won’t tell her boyfriend a thing. She won’t even tell the police, not even when the stalker murders Brad.

Detective Rodney Shapiro and his partner, Julie Lewis, are assigned the case. Right from the start, Rodney finds himself overtly sympathetic towards Kaitlyn because she is the spitting image of what his own daughter, Carol, might look like when she is older. Julie, on the other hand, suspects Kaitlyn from the start.

Rodney doesn’t question Kaitlyn the way a police office should. His questions, few in number, are posed as though he is a Victorian gentlewoman, utterly genteel. He just takes it for granted that she is innocent, and at one point, even gives her his own gun so she can defend herself.

The events in Kaitlyn’s life play to the backdrop of a larger crime: the killing of gay, bisexual and transmen by a serial killer, known as the GBT strangler, in Philadelphia. Even though this case is not under the jurisdiction of Rodney, it gets more than a little screen time from him.

The book is set in Philadelphia. We know that because the author tells us that. The setting does not come alive for us at all. It might as well be Anytown. Even the fact that Kaitlyn’s house overlooks a cemetery fails to register. Kaitlyn tells us it is eerie, but the mood fails to touch us.

The story is told by a female narrator, mostly in the third-person past tense PoVs of Kaitlyn and Rodney and occasionally from the first-person PoV of the stalker.

 

The writing was prosaic. The character voice didn’t stand out for any character.

I didn’t like Kaitlyn and couldn’t care less about her romance with the utterly bland Brad. We got details of her life, her work and her dates with Brad, but none of it helped. Kaitlyn remained flat and insipid as a character. The Harley she rides didn’t make her any more appealing. The single tears that flowed down her cheek were annoying. When we finally come to know the secret that she has been holding on to, we find it just as unimpressive. Also, the fear that REO Speedwagon induces is never properly explained.

In fact, not one of the characters in this novel stood out.

Rodney is well read and can quote from the classics. He does too, without the slightest improvement in his overall personality.

When we are first introduced to Rodney, there’s no reason why he should give his colleague, Julie, a “quick once-over” just to give us her physical description and then his own contrasting one. It was extremely clumsy.

I’m no expert on police procedure but there just didn’t seem to be much activity on the part of the police. Rodney asked gentle questions; there was no real probing, no looking for clues. We don’t get an impression of a tight case.

The proceedings were so banal that I didn’t feel involved at all, didn’t even feel compelled to suspect anyone. The stalker was that obvious. But not to Rodney and Kaitlyn.

Even when the stalker escalated their actions, I didn’t get the feeling of a real danger facing Kaitlyn. Then when the stalker started whining about a lost wig, and the DNA that could be gleaned from it, without once worrying about the cigarette stubs left all over the place, I wanted to cry.

The author tells us a lot about Rodney’s daughter, Carol, with whom he is estranged. The most unbelievable thing is that after droning on and on about the resemblance between Kaitlyn and his daughter, and almost minutes after Kaitlyn tells us that Brad made her feel safe and how she now feels miserable with him gone, both Rodney and Kaitlyn break into a passionate kiss.

The case of the GBT Strangler is also resolved, but in the most unconvincing manner imaginable. This killer turns out to be a character known to Kaitlyn, but this subplot peters out. Why was this person killing GBT people? Move on, people, no answers here.

The characters at Kaitlyn’s radio station were often spoken of with their full names, on several occasions. The author seems to forget that we have already been introduced.

This tendency sounded faintly amusing in the case of a character called Justin Case. The repeated mentions sounded like Just In Case.

The narrator’s voice was flat and emotionless. The only time she seemed alive was when she was doing Kaitlyn’s radio voice. When speaking for Kaitlyn, it was boring, turning stilted and monotonous when voicing a male character.

There was plenty of swearing in this novel. That’s always a no-no for me.

Good thing: the chapters are short, and the whole audiobook a quick listen.

Didn’t get into it. Will check out ebook now it is published. Rated 5* as is unfair to rate without reading

Kaitlyn Ashe has a secret and doesn't want anyone knowing about it., even her much loved boyfriend! As the top rated DJ in Philadelphia, Kaitlyn is soon discovered by someone in her past. A past she has been trying to run from for over 10 years. She's been receiving hate mail with references to her past. Who could this be? Nobody even knows what happened at the Shallow's. She's taken so many steps to hide from it, but it truly puts her back to that awful night. She begins having nightmares, the anonymous letters start being sent more frequently. Kaitlyn has to tell the cops about the letters and the other weird things happening. That's the last thing she wants is for the cops to start digging up her past. As the saying goes, the past has a sneaky way of coming back when you least expect it.
First off, I was super excited to have an audible version to listen to for this ARC. I love listening to the different characters and how they interact with each other. Audible books can make or break a story. This was a good audible. However, that being said, there were few things wrong with this book. First off, Kaitlyn, you seriously have this sordid past and you want to marry the guy you finally let into your life? But it's never occured to you that he may want to know why your nightmares are related to this past that you've hidden from him and everyone else? Also, the cops flat out ask you about the Shallow's and you dodge that question like you have no idea what they are talking about. Come on, they're cops, they will find out eventually. Just fess up that you know a bit about the letters and move on. Not only that, but the author tried to tie in a side story about a killer in Philly as well. Could these be related?? Seriously, the way things go down with this other storyline is down right ridiculous, I can't give the details without giving away the ending, but let's just say. I don't think so!!!
If this other storyline was removed I think the book would be fine without it. I know why it's added in, but it just doesn't work for me with the rest of the book. I pretty much figured out who the killer was shortly after things started escalating about 2/3's in. I didn't know the exact details, but i got the gist. For this I would give the book 3 stars. It's still entertaining overall and the plot is decent.
I recieved this ARC from #netgalley for an honest review. Thank you so much!

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for allowing me to listen to this audiobook! I thoroughly enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the narrator's voice and cadence they spoke with and that they didn't overly change their voice when speaking about other characters. The main character Katelyn Ashe has had a secret for a lot of her life and thought she left it in the past. She's got a great job as an evening DJ and has a serious boyfriend, everything seems to be going well until anonymous letters start showing up along with a call into her evening show requesting a song by REO Speedwagon she can't figure out the meaning behind. I really enjoyed the slow unraveling of who Kaitlyn Ashe really is and what happened in her past that has come back to seek revenge. 
I wish there had been more into the side plot with the GBT strangler and more of an explanation of the REO Speedwagon song that kept being requested. But overall would definitely recommend this book!