Dear Sir is a thrilling book. Katelyn is a radio host. She has secrets from her past. Katelyn is getting threatening letters. Who is ending them? Well Katelyn’s past come back and haunt her.?
#netgalley

**2020 20-word review**

A very heavy-handed thriller, lacking any sense of subtlety or nuance. Not terrible, but definitely not really worth recommending.

This book was a mess. It read like a creative writing student's first attempt at a novel. There was a lot of mundane, repetitive detail (ie "She made air quotes with her fingers." As opposed to?) and the protagonist was extremely unlikable. The characters are flat, I honestly didn’t care what happened to the protagonist and the “bad guy” wasn’t scary or intense at all.

None of this book made sense, the plot was flat and one dimensional and it was a slog to get through it. This book was not a winner for me.

It was a rather mediocre story. The build up was fine, intriguing enough to keep you turning the pages, but the author was giving away hints of the big reveal way too early and way too obvious. Hence, it has became almost meaningless coming to the final chapters of the book. I would say ending was the weakest part, it was too forced and the reason behind was just so unnecessary and unrealistic. I did enjoy the audiobook though, the narrator was great!

Kaitlyn Ashe, a successful radio personality, finds that childhood secrets have a way of coming back to haunt you. All of her efforts to hide her past seem to have failed and could put her seemingly perfect life in jeopardy. She is being terrorized by a mysterious stalker from her past. This is a somewhat predictable story, but still full of terrifying, revenge-fueled action.

I received a free audio copy of this book in return for an honest review.

**CAUTION- Spoilers below**

I really enjoyed this book. The suspense kept my interest the entire time. The only issue I had with the book is that the end started to get too farfetched. How did no one realize that Julie was the sister? How did Rodney have an issue with his daughter commiting a crime, but had no issue Laura letting someone die. And then he was ok with letting Julie die? There was no real struggle, other than a sentence. How was Julie perfectly ok with what happened to her brother for years, and suddenly was mentally unstable and had to go after Laura years later? How did Laura not recognize her?

Other that, I thought the book was really good. I enjoyed the narrator, too.

I would definitely read books from this author and listen to this narrator again!

Overall, Dead Air was an interesting read, but it does have a few problems.

I liked the Kaitlyn's job. I've never read a book about a radio DJ before, so it added a hint of freshness to the story. I also liked the chapters with the antagonist's POV. Those had a deeply sinister feel.

The antagonist's identity can be figured out pretty quickly. When reading a thriller, I like to be guessing up until the very end, or close to it. If a thriller doesn't have that back and forth guessing game, I like there to be a twist where my very solid-seeming conclusions get turned upside down, but looking back I see the clues were there all along. Having a pretty strong suspect in mind for most of the book, I hoped Dead Air would give me the latter of the two options, but it didn't.

Also, a serial killer subplot gets muddled in with the main plot. I would have been more interesting and unique of a thriller if Kaitlyn hadn't been a direct victim of a nefarious plot, but instead began to suspect this person in her life of these hideous crimes. That book could have really played up on the radio DJ aspect, showing us we may hear them laughing and cheery, but we don't know what's on their faces.

My biggest complaint is how stupid Kaitlyn and the detective, Rodney, were during the last halfish. She's being stalked by someone who definitely has no problem killing her loved ones, but Kaitlyn decides to stay at her best friend's unsecured apartment. She thinks everything will be just fine. Then another time, she's completely unconcerned about unusual noises and someone knocking on the hiding spot's door. She just keeps showering. It's as if someone's not trying to kill her, so she isn't any more scared or paranoid. But a few chapters before, she acted out in extreme paranoia. Her relaxation didn't make sense given the situation.

On to the detective. He brings Kaitlyn back to her house after the antagonist has already struck there, and they get drunk together while he's supposed to be protecting her. What???? Then, get this, she reminds him so much of his daughter, but when she kisses him he kisses back. What the everloving.... There's a lot of other stuff displaying Rodney's incompetence and blindness, but that would require major spoilers. I'm just glad Rodney's not a real law enforcement agent.

I figured out who the stalker was literally half way through the book and still really, truly enjoyed it.

A compulsively readable (or, in this case listenable) revenge thriller. The writing was tight, the plot fast-paced and full of tension. The only thing was, the villain and their motive was obvious almost right from their introduction. It didn't ruin it, but it did take some of the fun out of it. The big "what really happened in The Shallows?" question was the real mystery. The solution was satisfyingly mundane and realistic, and because of that it was genuinely a little sad.
The characters were developed enough to be three dimensional, but it wasn't a 'character driven story,' which I actually enjoy.
I also liked the serial killer subplot and it's grimly comical conclusion.
The narration was good, but I had to listen at 2.5 speed, as I found the pacing particularly slow. But at a higher playback speed, it was perfect.
Overall, an entertaining read.

Successful radio DJ Kaitlyn Ashe is finally ready to out her ugly past behind her and settle down with the man she loves. She wants to believe her secrets are buried and will never be exhumed, but all of a sudden she begins getting letters that let her known someone has not forgotten, and they don’t intend to let her forget either. Someone is out for revenge and they don’t intend to stop until Kaitlyn has paid. Fulginiti’s narration is direct and straightforward, much like Bradley’s story.

The first half of the novel sucked me right in and I couldn't put it down. Once I got to the half way point I kinda figured everything out but then there was another twist I didn't see coming. Overall this was a solid and quick read. Really great narrator, I hope she does some more audiobooks in the future because I would love to listen to her. Thank you netgalley for the audiobook!