Petra Kovach. 1st generation immigrant whose parents came over from somewhere in eastern Europe. They settled in eastern LA. Here grandfather was killed accidentally in a drive-by shooting when she was young. At around 8yo, she managed to the case reopened with an impassioned plea in a letter to the editor of the LA Times. While getting the case reopened, the killer was never identified. At this tender age, she decided that journalism would be her future.

As a teenager, she was a camp counselor and developed a close friendship with Olivia Johnson (Livvy) that they maintained after that summer. One connection is that both lost important people in their lives. Petra's grandfather and Livvy's mother. Petra goes on to UCLA and starts her career in print journalism. Livvy eventually enrolls at Harvard where she is a oddball. An unapologetic conservative amongst the liberal majority that inhabits Harvard. Livvy's stepfather works in the Swedish consulate in Boston and has an older brother, Eric, also in Boston area. As a freshman, Livvy dates the star football player, has a fling with a professor, and ends up being the victim of a vicious attack in her dorm room. The prof is arrested, tried and found not guilty. He's dumped by Harvard and the public hasn't forgotten about the killer professor. This happens 2yrs prior to the opening of the book.

Petra's career path has been bumpy, but she hasn't forgotten about Livvy and is desperate to track down the killer. Petra's been fired from two middling newspapers and she is trying it again at a second tier paper in Boston. And that ain't going well either. As the book opens, Petra's job appears to the on cutting board due to budget cuts. But Petra uses Livvy's story as a means to extend her stay with the paper and her editor agrees to let her put her efforts into the case. Petra suggests a podcast to accompany her newspaper reporting.

And here's where things get interesting. She has a competitor at the paper, Natalie, whom she despises. Her boyfriend (a tech startup whiz) who is sort of her moral compass. In the process of her 'pursuit of justice' she manages to . . . to reveal any or everything she does, or pisses off, or is entirely illegal would spoil the story. Let's just say that journalistic ethics takes a back seat to the pursuit of (aka: obsession with) this cold case by opening doors that needn't have been even touched and damaging the lives of anyone in her way. All in the name of getting content out on her podcast. The popularity of the podcast explodes from being a local story all the way to CNN.

I have to say that there were multiple times that I said to myself, "Good Lord. Just quit. Move on to the next book." Because I didn't like Petra. She's conniving, manipulative, cloying, annoying and obsessed with the case and the sudden popularity of her podcast; damn anyone who gets in her way. But I stuck it out against my better wishes. Yeah, we find out who actually killed Livvy. That's always important in any attempt at reviving a cold case, but that's almost secondary. More importantly, we find out the consequences of Petra's actions to herself and to the people she stepped on all in pursuit of the almighty click count.

After finishing the book, I thought my review wouldn't be all that favorable. Then I started thinking that maybe that was the author's point. To present a main character so utterly devoid of ethics that the reader has no choice but to despise her. If that was the point, then Whitten was successful. As I was reading, I started wondering if Whitten was setting us up for a new character series to which I would've said, 'Nope. No chance of reading a Petra Kovach #2.' Once finished, I realized #2 isn't gonna happen.

I hope.

I like to check up on the author. Whitten is a TV writer for such shows as House, Law & Order, CSI: Miami, JAG, The Glades, Homicide, Judging Amy, and more. His works have been nominated for Emmy and Edgar awards. One of his past books (The Necklace) is in production by Hollywood. The guy can write and weave a compelling story. Methinks getting us to despise Petra was his intent right from the start.

Thanks to Netgalley and Oceanview Publishing for making an advance copy available. Regular readers will know that I'm an unapologetic supporter of the Oceanview Publishing. While reading the book, I was thinking that this might be the first hiccup for Oceanview. But the further I get from the book, the most I think that the author was skillfully playing with us with his portrayal of Petra. Even so, I still don't like Petra Kovach.

Several years before Petra is about to be laid off from her job as a reporter, a You Tuber was killed in her dorm room and the killer was never caught. Petra was friends with the victim and she decides to investigate the cold case. You will find yourself wondering how far she will go to find the truth as you read this storyline. You won’t put this one down until you finish reading it! I would recommend the book and the author.

A deeply immersive murder mystery. I was pulled in from the get go. When protagonist Petra is about to be laid off from her journalist position, yet again, she panics and tells her boss that she has a lead on one of the most famous murder cases of the past few years, that of eighteen year old youtuber Olivia. Of course, she doesn't really have any new information on the case, but she is willing to do anything, and I do mean anything, to save her job. How far will she really go to find the truth? Do the ends justify the means? Pick up Killer Story and find out.
As other reviews mention, Petra is quite the unlikable protagonist. She does pretty vile things in her search for the truth (and more podcast downloads). At the start, it's easy to connect with her. She's idealistic and really does want to find justice for Olivia. However she quickly steps over the line and into very predatory journalistic practices. But... you don't have to love the main character to love a story, and this mystery was deep and compelling. I devoured this novel and am curious to see what else the author has to offer.

After reading The Necklace I really expected big things from this story. I was just a little let down. But only a little.
I didn't really like the main character at all. She came across as a self-centered egotistical, out only for herself, person. I could say more but refrain. While I didn't like her I did understand a bit why she was the way she was. Though I believe she could have been a nicer person. Maybe.

Her friend was murdered and Petra does not believe that her murder has been solved. She sets out to find the real killer. Or to at least help solve this crime. Justice for her friend. Some of the things that Petra does are a bit questionable but I did understand. Her back story is very interesting also. She's going to keep you on the edge with some of the things she does. Very good. Very very good.

I really enjoyed this story. I always enjoy one that keeps me on the edge.

Thank you #NetGalley, #MattWitten, #OceanviewPublishing for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

4.75 stars. I do recommend it. It's very good.

Petra's career as a journalist isn't going well. In fact, she's about to be laid off... again. In a panic, she throws out an idea to her boss - a podcast about a murdered Youtube-ing coed that Petra knew years ago. Petra promises that she can bring something new and exciting to this story - but how far is she willing to go to make it big?

I had a hard time reading this book. Like Petra, I, too, work in a field where ethics is super important, and it was so hard to watch her throwing her ethics - and, at times, her relationships - down the drain to further her career and increase the popularity of the podcast. I do love a good novel about a podcast, though, so I still had a hard time putting it down and wanted to see whether Petra would actually find the real murderer.

This story was a quick read and did hold my interest enough to want to find out how it ended. But just barely. The main character was just a terrible person. Just horrible. Delusional, self-obsessed, completely without a shred of integrity or ethics. The amount of damage she did to innocent peoples' lives was unbelievable.

Even more unbelievable was her editor allowing her unfounded accusations to make it into print and on the internet. No legitimate media outlet would allow her to make the accusations she did without clearing some of it with the paper's legal department to keep them from being sued. And they would have been sued for what Petra did, many times over.

When you grow to actively hate the main character over the course of a book, the author has either done exactly what he meant to do or completely failed at his job. In the case of Killer Story, I think it's the latter.

*Thank you to Oceanview Publishing, Matt Witten and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Previously posted at https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/killer-story/

“Journalism without a moral position is impossible. Every journalist is a moralist. It’s unavoidable.”
– Marguerite Duras

Petra Kovach is a terrible person and an even more terrible journalist. To save her job at The Clarion, a small Boston newspaper, she will out you if you are gay, falsely accuse you of murder, break into your house or accuse you of having a sexual relationship with your teenage daughter. If it helps her keep her job or get more interest in her podcast, she will ruin your life with no regrets. Petra is the main character in Killer Story and one of the most unlikeable characters I have read lately. Not only is she an unreliable narrator but has no moral clause as a journalist. That being said, Killer Story is actually a brilliant book if you can look past the female main character. And the focus becomes her and her terrible choices, rather than who murdered Olivia Anderson, an alt-right podcaster at Harvard with hateful views on immigrants, homosexuals or anyone else she decides might be worthy of her disdain.

It has been two years since Olivia has been killed. Petra was very close friends with her until Olivia started spewing hate in the name of patriots everywhere. She even outs a victim of rape who is accusing her friend of the crime. There are lots of people who would have a reason to hurt her, but the blame has landed on a professor at Harvard, that she was having an affair with. Unfortunately, they fail to convict him but he is believed by all of Olivia’s zealous fans to be the murderer and they harass him enough to go into hiding. Or it could be her boyfriend, who Petra speculates is gay, and that Olivia was going to out him. Or her stepfather, whom Petra believes had a sexual relationship with Olivia when she was just 14. When it turns out Petra’s job may be made redundant (3 times in so many years), she tells her boss, Dave, that she may have a lead on the murder of Olivia and that is going to be an enormous story. He runs with her “killer” story and she becomes even more embroiled in all the lies she tells. Even roping in her lovable fiance, think Adrian Grenier from The Devil Wears Prada, who may lose his own job in helping her.

What is Petra’s plan? She pitches a podcast about the cold case murder of Olivia. Though most believe they solved the case with the Harvard Professor as the murderer, Petra believes the killer is still out there and that it had to do with a podcast that Olivia had teased three days before her death. When she meets Olivia’s brother, he offers her information off the record and asks her not to use him as the source. But what is a story without a named source? She uses it anyway and starts destroying lives.

When I first started this book, I wasn’t as focused on the mystery as I was on how this journalist could live with herself. It was a very uncomfortable few chapters of seeing Petra Kovach in action. Once I absorbed myself in the mystery, I became more entrenched and unable to put the book down. I hoped for two things; for Petra to get her comeuppance and for the mystery of who killed Olivia Anderson to be solved. Only one of those actually happened. I had previously read Matt Witten’s The Necklace so I know he writes a good story and this was really enjoyable to read once you understand that none of the characters are likable and it is supposed to be that way.

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

• journalism thriller
• fun twists
• loved the podcast aspect

Our MC is one ballsy, manipulative woman but it sure was fun to follow her around while she was getting her "killer story!" The writing was easy and the whole concept of the book made me realize just how cutthroat the journalism/media industry is... 😳 The Author's Note at the end made me appreciate the whole concept of this book even more.

🗣️ Thank you to @netgalley and @oceanviewpub for the opportunity to read and review this book via gifted eARC! All opinions are honest and my own.

I did not like the MC. She was so unlikeable. I felt like she just did whatever she had to do to get ahead without any regard to anyone. I was not a fan. It made it hard for me to connect to the story

Thank you Netgalley, Oceanview publishing and Matt Witten for the Arc of this book.

This is my second Matt Witten book so I was highly anticipating reading this one.

Overall it was a good read however the main character was totally unlikeable and did so many silly things that I was almost always frustrated at her.

I love a podcast crime solving trope and this one was good in that aspect despite my issues with the main character.

The ending twist was good and I did enjoy that we didn't really get all that closure until the end.

KILLER STORY delivers page after page of surprises through the eyes of Petra Kovach, a journalist about to be laid off again from yet another newspaper. Author Matt Witten bravely acknowledges that financial uncertainty is a type of trauma. Other than the love for telling the truth and spotlighting stories on issues, it's been a curiosity why anyone enters journalism these days. Every story is reduced to soundbites. Coverage on a long story would be three minutes on television. In written stories, people rarely continue reading beyond the second paragraph. Petra Kovach and her managing boss are on the chopping block until she comes with a proposition that might save their asses: a true crime podcast.

Petra is obsessed with the murder of an old friend—a girl she knew when they were teens and Petra was a camp counselor. Olivia Anderson's life takes turns Petra would never have guessed. She goes from bright-eyed and idealistic teen journalist to a college vlogger spouting alt-right, misogynistic rants full of victim-blaming, denials, and accusations of hot button news around Harvard. Despite her personality at the time of her murder, Petra wants to solve Olivia's murder.

As each chapter ends on a cliffhanger, readers just might find Petra Kovach as shady and unlikeable as I did. She loses all her ethics as a journalist in order to make a name for herself in podcasting. It feels like she's constantly getting way with selfish behavior. Her fiancé Jonah tries to be Petra's conscience. Their relationship crumbling through the course of the book is the first consequence Petra ever faces for her selfish decisions. Somehow, she keeps stringing Jonah along from one lie to the next. She does the same to her boss and her sources! Petra is conniving yet that's how she describes her ultra-competitive co-worker Natalie, the newspaper's golden goose reporter on the crime beat.

Petra is simply a terrible human being. I did not root for her to find Olivia's killer after chapter two. Plus, due to her politics, Olivia Anderson doesn't feel like a sympathetic victim at all either, which is intentional by author Matt Witten. According to his comments in the Author's Notes at the back, he expressed curiosity for what happens to someone so young and vulnerable that can lead them to manipulative people who implant dangerous thoughts in their heads. He used Tomi Lahren as inspiration. There is also a section for book club discussion questions.

What I did love was Witten's knack for describing people. It's a modern take on the choppy old noir style. He lets short sentences flow in a cadence that gives what a reader needs to know in order to make their own assumptions about what someone would be like. Maybe this is considered neo-noir. There is one gun. Olivia comes across as an ingenue. Natalie is the femme fatale. Protagonist Petra has definitely been down on her luck before she pitches this investigative reporting podcast.

Content Warnings:
Sexual Assault
Suicide
Gunfire
Incest

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Killer Story by Matt Witten.

This was an unexpected riot to read. I love a good villain origin story, especially a surprise one.

Petra Kovach (amazing name BTW) is a down on her luck journalist who just cannot seem to keep a job. So when her current job threatens layoffs, she pitches a story that her boss cannot refuse. She is going to find out who killed the notorious alt right woman with a twitter that is always infuriating. Even though the crime has officially been solved, Petra knows that there is more to the story, and she will stop at nothing to find out the truth behind the murder.

I don't want to give anything away, but I really loved going on this devolving journey with Petra. I rolled my eyes, laughed, and groaned more often than I can count, but in the way that you do when listening to really piping hot tea. Very fun, a great splashy read.

This was a very interesting read. The main character was not likable through most of the book .She did a lot of things that just don't sit right with you. I guess if you were in the same situation maybe some people would do the same thing. This book had twists and turns through out. I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it.

Thanks NetGalley and Oceanview Publishing for allowing me to read this ARC.

Thanks to Oceanview Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in return for my honest review.
Well, there are a lot of issues in this book, with the main plot involving a young journalist, who has been fired 3 times in her early career, now trying to hold on to a new position at a Boston newspaper by doing a True Crime podcast in which she attempts to find the killer of a childhood friend. If the police cannot find the killer then Petra, our protagonist, is going to reveal the identity. Now this starts the 2nd theme in the book which deals with the reliability of podcast information, and lastly journalistic ethics. It is all there as we follow Petra in her quest. But is the quest to find the killer or save here job, and what will she do in order to get the results she wants.
A very readable book, that deals with todays journalism, and the rapidly expanding world of podcast, instant journalism and down right the competition for success and money from advertisers.
The deeper you get into the book the more these issues come to the fore and one must wonder if solving the mystery of who killed the young lady (Livvy) is really the top priority.
Well written, fast paced book that deals with todays society and issues that come along with new journalism. You may question Petra, but you cannot question the quality of this book!

A thoroughly good mystery!

Petra is a journalist in an ever demanding world; the constant pressure to come up with new stories and, most importantly, to beat every other journalist to them. Having already lost two jobs in this competitive world, she is horrified that another sacking is on the cards - unless, of course, she can come up with something which will create revenue for her employers. Petra pitches investigating the unsolved murder of a student who was known to her and which remains unsolved. With the promise of a podcast if she can come up with the goods, she sets off absolutely determined to get a result and keep her job.

I rather liked this one! There is just enough of Petra's personal life included to make her human without it overshadowing the investigation. I loved the competitiveness between colleagues on the paper; we all know that it's all about the story for newspaper journalists and it's a cut-throat world and Matt Witten shows this perfectly. I really appreciated that the investigation wasn't straight-forward as it gets a bit unbelievable when every turn in a mystery is right. This one has disappointments as well as successes and I found myself riveted and desperate to find out 'whodunnit'! Thoroughly enthralling, and well worth 4.5*.

MY THANKS TO THE PUBLISHER FOR MY COPY AND APOLOGIES FOR THE LATE POSTING OF REVIEW - DUE TO A HEALTH ISSUE.

This book was crazy, exciting and page turning. I couldn't put this down as the story was so fast paced it took me on a ride from start to finish.
Petra is doing her best to not get laid off another newspaper. She will literally do anything. When she comes up with an idea to solve the murder of someone she used to be close to, she pitches it to her boss just as he is about to let her go. She finds herself promising a podcast too.
Things just get crazier from there. What a wild ride!

**A copy of this book was provided by the author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

As a big fan of Matt Witten’s first novel, The Necklace, I had really high hopes for Killer Story when I started it. I was hoping I’d get that suspense I loved so much from his first novel and a twisty, keep me guessing tale weaving through this book. Witten… did not disappoint.


The story follows Petra, who is a small town journalist with a little bit of PTSD from being fired or laid off repeatedly. With that she is trying really hard to justify her position at her current job and wants to help solve the murder of her friend. The issue is the crime is supposedly solved, but she disagrees. Right off the bat I find Petra slightly annoying. She was way too antsy for my liking, and constantly making promises to things she had no idea if she was going to be able to keep. Not the type of people I typically like, but she was desperate. Witten has a way, which is yet again seen in Killer Story, to make you feel really strongly for the characters in the book. There’s not a single one that I can just brush aside with a “they’re okay” feeling. I either love them, hate them, or are highly suspicious of them. Sometimes more than one of those.

The story flowed really nicely. While the mystery itself that she was working on was suspenseful and interesting, I found myself incredibly drawn by Petra’s own story. She was doing a lot of things most reporters do not do and cutting corners she shouldn’t. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time waiting for the consequences of these actions to hit. It was like suspenseful, but from multiple angles. Double suspense? Either way I was anxious for what seemed inevitable and completely rapt in the story. Way to hook me, Witten!


Killer Story really hooks you right from the beginning and even though I really didn’t like Petra as a person, her story was incredibly interesting and her behavior made me flip pages as fast as I could to see what was going to happen next and in response to her actions. Completely enthralling and a must read for all thriller lovers!

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review .

Oh my what an epilogue!.

The first few pages had me shocked and intrigued and asking what the hell?, what started off as a nice sweet story about a camp councillor and a teenager she met at camp turned into anything but.

The writing style of the story kept me hooked, it was like Petra’s diary so we went through everything with her as she investigated every lead and tried to contact everyone involved.

It’s also very thought provoking about the ethics of journalism, some do whatever it takes to get the story even though the lines are blurred and does the truth even matter at all?.

A childhood tragedy, the unsolved murder of her of father, propelled Petra to want to be an influential investigative journalist. Unfortunately her dreams haven’t come true and now she’s on the verge of losing another job…that is until she makes a desperate pitch to her boss. What’s the pitch? To look into the cold case of a young college YouTuber who was murdered years earlier and produce a true crime podcast. A girl who Petra had a past connection with. So who really killed Olivia? Was it her boyfriend (who was the original suspect), was it someone who disagreed with her alt-right politics, or was it something even darker and more disturbing? Dark and disturbing definitely describes much of this story. Killer Story features fast paced, well told, gritty, multi-layered, twisty story…and a lot of unlikable characters. I don’t really mean that as a negative, just stating a fact. Even our ‘heroine’ is questionable at times, though honestly that made everyone feel all the more real. While it deals with some seriously uncomfortable subject matter that might be tough for some to deal with, I found it engaging from start to finish. I’d like to thank Oceanview Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of Matt Witten’s Killer Story.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R1YU9TEPI1JWO4/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Killer Story
Matt Witten


Matt Witten’s new novel, Killer Story, is a timely crime chiller about a newspaper reporter who in an attempt to save her job reopens a cold case murder investigation and in the process turns from idealistic journalist to resorting to unethical and at times barely legal ways to tell her story making the novel engaging and one that will keep readers on the edge of their seats from beginning to end. Matt gives readers a tight nail-biting plot and flowing narrative, plus his use of podcasting in his storyline gives the novel a modern feel making the characters seem more authentic. And of course the murder of a young radical is always a hot topic for thriller lovers. Of the eclectic stable of quality characters Petra is definitely the star, unfortunately it’s not always for the right reason as she falls down the rabbit hole of deception and deceit convincing herself the end justifies the means and leaving readers to wonder if she will or even want to redeem herself. The other stand out characters are her boyfriend Jonah who at times acts as her conscience, and her co-worker/nemesis Natalie. Killer Story will stay with readers long after “The End” and is perfect for fans of Hank Phillipi Ryan, JT Ellison and Harlen Coben.

No one knows better than Petra Kovach how hard it is in this day and age to be a successful newspaper reporter and when she discovers she’s about to be fired from yet another job she comes up with a way to convince her editor to keep her, which involves reopening a murder case that’s gone cold that she may just have new evidence about.

Petra’s been obsessed with the two-year-old cold case murder of Olivia Anderson, a right winged podcaster and Harvard freshman, someone Petra had known very well and was still a mentor to even though Olivia became so radicalized. Petra and Olivia met at a journalist boot camp when Petra was a senior at UCLA and Olivia was fourteen. The girls shared many ideals and as it turned out many tragic life events and soon were sharing secrets, hopes and became as close as sisters. But when Olivia became a right-winged conspiracy theorist Petra wondered what happened to the idealistic young girl she once knew. So when Petra runs into Olivia’s older brother Eric and he confesses to know “unknown” secrets about Olivia’s murder Petra knows she’s got the perfect ammunition to save her job.