When Riley Hunt--a popular student at Manhattan's Easton College--is brutally murdered, it becomes a big story for TV newswoman Clare Carlson. A troubled Afghanistan war veteran is arrested as a suspect. But Clare believes this is more than a simple murder case--and fears more lives, including her own, remain in danger.

I was drawn into this book just by the synopsis. I have never read any of the other books before this one, but I plan on going back and reading them. I loved the character development, and the writing style was amazing. Kept me turning the pages. I do wish that some of the things were not repeated but also it would be good for someone who needed reminding,

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

It’s News To Me was the first book I have read by this author. I wish I knew this was part of a series! I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more had I read the books in order. I give this book a solid three and a half stars. I like the plot and enjoyed the characters! Writing was great and it was easy to follow! I enjoyed this book and want to read the whole series in order; this may change my review. :)
Thanks to Netgalley for an ebook copy in exchange for my completely honest review!

I wanna start by saying going into this book I never realized this was the fifth book in a series. Maybe if I had known that and read all of the books in order maybe I would have enjoyed it a lot more than I did. This book was ok but I had a very difficult time staying interested and I don't think this book ever had my full attention. I had to go back a few times and reread a few paragraphs to keep myself interested. An ok thrilled but not one of the best books I have read this year. I think now I will buy the first book and try to read them in order and hope I feel differently. I will definitely check out more books by this author but I didn't care for this book very much. Thank you so much for allowing me to read this book and give my honest opinion

I didn't love this one. It's was fast-paced and the plot made some sense although the stakes weren't anything I cared much about and I found some of the writing redundant and a bit amateurish. I like the idea of a reporter morphing into a bit of an investigator through chasing down leads but for me, the characters were a bit one-dimensional so that I never got that invested in what was going on. I wouldn't be inclined to read anything else in the series.

The description of this book captivated me. This is absolutely my normal go-to genre. That just means I have really high standards because I’ve read hundreds of these types of books. After a while, plots tend to repeat and it’s easy to figure out who the killer is, etc. so these books really need something extra special to stand out. I thought that would be this book based on the description because it’s a neat idea to write about a murder from a tv reporter’s perspective and I’ve personally never read one like this before.

This one was well written, well paced, but it fell a little flat for me plot wise. I also wasn’t careful and hadn’t realized it was like fifth in a series where I hadn’t read the others and that’s normally something I would like to do for MC development purposes, especially in police procedurals or I suppose in this case, tv reporter police procedurals? lol: It isn’t necessary to have read the first four, I think this works fine as a stand alone for readers who don’t mind, but it does really bother me to jump in in the middle of a series. However, I can’t say I care to go back to read those after this one.

Rating it 3/5 stars because although it wasn’t my personal favorite, it was okay. I enjoyed some parts and could see others enjoying it. From the reviews, it appears the book has appealed more towards the older crowds (I’m late 20’s).

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Oceanview Publishing for the opportunity to advance read and review!

I wasn't aware that there was a previous set in this series. I could follow it without reading the others, but I can't say this makes me want to read the others.

This was a solid "thriller" but I also was left wanting more and felt like it fell a bit flat.

This was a decent thriller in which a murdered college student becomes a big news story for the main character, TV reporter Clare Carlson. The story was good but not fabulous and had a lot of redundancy throughout. This is the fifth book in a series where I did not read the first four. Easy to follow but not good enough for me to want to read the other 4.

Great, punchy read. I enjoyed it so much I've just ordered the rest of the series. I can't say more than that!

This is the first book that i have read by this author and I really enjoyed it. Riley Hunt, a college student, is found murdered. The police think they have found the killer, but Clare Carlson, a tv reporter isn't sure that have the correct killer. The book is full of mystery and also a little romance.

I enjoyed It's News to Me so very much! The newscaster, Clare Carlson, was very well developed. And she was really believable. The way she tracked down her stories was exactly how I would expect a reporter to do it. She was like a dog with a bone. Never giving up until she got her scoop. I felt so sorry for Riley. She was just trying to avenge her mother and found herself dead. And the crooked police commissioner. He was a creep who never did right by his son. He never believed in him. He turned out to be Riley's biological father, which must have been a disappointment to her.

Clare's cantankerous new boss had it in for her. Her only goal in life was high ratings. She'd do anything to get rid of Clare. It wasn't a love/hate relationship. It was a hate/hate relationship. When she tried to ambush her with the owner it didn't work. Clare went on to land not one but two bombshell stories.

And the end. It was a bit of a twist. I didn't see that coming. When Clare found herself before a gun, with crime lord Anthony's son Johnny holding it, it seemed like there was no way out for her. No one knew where she was. He could have killed her and hidden her body and no one would be the wiser. But that was not to be. The one person that I thought would never come to her rescue was the one who saved the day.

This book was so good that I purchased 3 other Clare Carlson books. I'm sure I won't be disappointed. Thank you NetGalley for this read.

Riley Hunt seemed to have it all. Grew up in Dayton, OH . . . valedictorian . . . homecoming queen . . . Dad's a physician and Mom's an attorney . . . quality high school and college basketball player . . . Well into her first year at Easton College in NYC . . . lots of volunteer work in the City . . . lead singer in a local 80s/90s NY band . . . wants a career in politics to make the world a better place . . . she's now the lead story on the evening news . . .

Lovely young women brutally beaten to death in the early hours of the morning on the doorstep her college. Not robbery. Not rape. Just bludgeoned to death.

Clare Carleson is the news editor for Channel 10 in the City. She's having lunch with the station owner who has just told Clare that he has hired a new Executive Producer (EP, now Clare's boss) to bust chops and raise the station's ratings. Eyeballs drive TV news and Clare's knack for breaking big stories and her Pulitzer Prizes are old news.

Clare's #2 at the station interrupts lunch with a call telling Clare about the Riley Hunt murder last night. Clare's going to go all in on this one, new EP or not. But the new EP does make one decision on her first day: Clare will be the face of the story. Put the biggest name on the biggest story.

The early work from the police is that it's sad story told too often in the Big Apple. A random act perpetrated on a random victim. Happens. Clare's journalistic antennae are activated and begins doing her reporter due diligence.

-She learns Riley had a boyfriend. And not just any boyfriend. This guy is the son of a Deputy Director of the NYPD.

-A bartender near the college tells Clare that Riley had spent time in the bar with another guy. One Johnny Steffano. A real hothead with a rapsheet. Not what one might expect Riley to be involved with. And it's not just his temper. He's the son of an organized crime boss in the NYC.

-Her college roommate is a theater major who mentions to Clare that Riley had lost her laptop or it was stolen. Not to mention that Riley's phone wasn't found at the crime scene.

-The Afghanistan/Iraq vet with PTSD Riley met through one of her volunteer gigs.

-Riley's father is devastated. Her mom, an Easton alum, is strangely stoic when she gets the news, but is visibly shattered at the memorial organized by the college.

Lot of balls to keep in the air. As if juggling all those leads isn't enough, Clare has to deal with the new EP wanting to fire some of the on-air talent at Channel 10, tries to keep the station's news ship afloat during the EP's assault, work with her ex-husband/homicide detective's role in the case, keep another ex- (not husband) who is a ADA lothario still trying to bed Clare at arm's length, do the dating dance with a Princeton Spanish prof that Clare's best friend set her up with, and bemoan her general inability to have anything resembling a social life.

No 11th hour disclosures by Belsky. Clare's history is to not accept the party line of a big story. She lives for the next Big Story. She wants any minute thread that might - just might - lead to the next chip in the game. That's what drives her and drives away most anyone not connected to her pursuit of the truth. This woman doesn't know when to throw up her hands and agree with what the rest of the legal community of New York says. No way. No how.

And that makes for a great story, a fun read, and a raucous escape from Covid-19, Ukraine, and the roller coaster weather. This is Belsky's 5th Clare Carleson book, all of which have been reviewed by the boys at MRB. All told Belsky has at least 12 books to his credit and most all pertain to 'the news' because that's what he does. He's made a career of 'the news' be in print, TV, digital, etc. mostly in New York. He writes what he knows: Crime, NYC, News. And he's dang good at it.

I first stumbled across Belsky's Gill Malloy character in around 2014/15 and loved it (all 4 Malloy books are reviewed on the blog). He then moved onto the Clare Carleson character. The blog now has 9 Belsky books reviewed on the blog. And I think I can say that Belsky deserves a place of honor on my personal power rotation of authors.

Three other reasons I like Belsky's books. First, it's published by Oceanview, my 2nd favorite publisher (a close 2nd to Emily Bestler Books). Second, the Oceanview website mentions that Belsky occasionally writes under the pseudonym of Dana Perry - more reading opportunities. Finally, the Oceanview blog says Belsky is an alum of the J-School at Ohio University . . . my alma mater.

Keep it up, pal. We're addicted to your next story that should be due this time in 2023. Mark your calendar.

Due to be published October 2022. Thanks to NetGalley and Oceanview for the advance review copy.

ECD

It’s News to Me is the fifth instalment in this series, but I had no difficulty reading it as a standalone, and instantly liked its snappy style, the sense the author has an intimate knowledge of newsrooms and the personalities in them, and the lead character TV newswoman Clare Carlson. She’s intelligent though somewhat reckless, one-track-minded, lives for the next big story, is better in her work than in her personal life… a pretty believable dedicated investigative journalist in other words. The big story she can’t let go of is the brutal murder of college student Riley Hunt, who everybody apparently loved. The assumption that it’s a simple wrong place-wrong time situation doesn’t sit with Clare. Nor does it feel right when an Afghanistan war veteran suffering with PTSD is arrested as a suspect. Clare keeps digging, uncovering much more to the story, putting her own life and career in danger. The final strands are pulled maybe a little too quickly and easily, and there are some questionable elements if you’re looking for an entirely believable plotline: could all this happen? But if you’re after a fast, easy to read, enjoyable detective story with a strong, sassy female lead character, I’d recommend It’s News to Me.

This is the fifth entry in the Clare Carlson series. It can be read as a stand-alone. I enjoy this series because the MC is a TV journalist who looks into murders. This is not one of the best in the series, but it was interesting enough.

First off I had no idea this was part of a series but it can be read as a stand alone. It didn’t thrill me enough to be classified as a thriller and overall I found it way too slow of a pace for my liking. It was okay, I liked it but didn’t love it

The plot synopsis of this book grabbed me, Riley Hunt a beautiful college student is murdered just blocks from her school in New York City. Within days an Afghanistan war vet is charged with her murder after an alleged confession but reporter Clare Carlson has a gut feeling there is more to the story then meets the eye. This is my first book by R.G. Belsky and the 5th book in the series about this reporter and while I enjoyed parts of the book for me it was a miss. Parts of the book felt very redundant, the time line did not seem to really add up and while the ending tied everything together it was too perfect for me. The story was easy to follow in that I didn't feel like I needed to the previous books to really understand the story of the reporter but unfortunately its not a series I would continue with. I would like to thank R.G. Belsky, Oceanview Publishing and NetGalley for the chance to review this book.

This is the first of Belsky’s books I’ve read and I enjoyed it. I like his style. It’s hard-boiled and in the vein of Chandler and Hammet but instead of a PI he has a news reporter Clare chasing stories.
The plot was well worked with Clare trying to find out who killed a student found dead near her college campus and certainly kept me guessing and I liked how the author brought many of the threads together in the end.
He succeeds in producing a good crime story with interesting characters and some witty lines of dialogue and narrative.
Clare is fearless, though perhaps too fearless at times to be realistic in the face of hoods with guns pointed at her? Still, I’d recommend it for fans of modern detective fiction. Thanks to Netgalley and Oceanview publishing for this e-ARC in return for an honest review.

It's alright.

It's News to Me is the fifth entry to the Clare Carlson series, following TV reporter-detective Clare on her mission to figure out the truth in her latest story: a young, promising golden girl who was suddenly murdered in the streets of New York.

Something that I noticed right away was the snappy pacing and the straightforward writing style, which complement the thriller/mystery genre of the novel and Clare's personality as a blunt, sharp reporter who likes to get straight to business. This made it very easy for me to keep flipping to the next page.

One thing that I found a little annoying was how much certain bits of information were repeated, especially for a certain character. It's understandable if it happens twice or three times, but everytime that character appears (which is more than three times)? It seems unnecessary, especially if this character had appeared in previous books of the series and was once a big part of Clare's life. Let the character interactions speak for themselves.

Other than that, I think the book's fine. All the plot threads came together pretty neatly and there was a particular twist that I didn't think of that really shocked me and yet helped to solve some aspects of the mystery surrounding the golden girl.

Thanks to Netgalley and Oceanview Publishing for providing me with the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, Oceanview Publishing and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

A thriller about a college student being murdered. It’s okay, it has parts that are slow. I liked it, didn’t love it.

For some reason It's News to Me isn't downloading to my Kindle!
I've been trying to send it for two days now!