Conservative radio host Larry Lemmon (aka Alex Jones lite) dies suspiciously during his radio show. TV reporter Jolene Garcia and a horde of other reporters flock to the station hoping for exclusive details on this newsworthy death. Some books suck me in and I will read them in one day. Unfortunately, this was not one of those books. It gets a tad mired in the behind the scenes of journalism and Jolene really takes a turn into a stereotypical slimy reporter. After a series of dead ends, but with a determination to crack the case, Jolene finally gets to the truth and is the hero of the day. It felt far-fetched that the cops, who had far more information and resources than Jolene, hadn't already discovered the murderer. While no one would debate the motive was a good one, and one foreshadowed throughout the story, could justice have been done by simply revealing this information to the public...probably.

I thought this was good! It had almost a cozy mystery type feel with it a little more depth and relationship building. I would recommend for fans of Only Murders in the Building.

This book is not for me. I read about 50% of the way, but can't go further. I felt that the writing was a bit forced and just wasn't enjoying the storyline.

*3.5 stars*

Jolene Garcia is a reporter in Phoenix, Arizona, and is eating lunch when she gets the call to head over to the local radio station KFRK. Someone in the building has collapsed and died, and the rumor is that controversial radio host Larry Lemmon is the victim. That rumor is quickly confirmed, as well as the rumor that he was murdered. Jolene works to try to uncover the mystery of who killed him while simultaneously attempting to get the scoop before the other news stations and national networks can.

This book isn't my typical read. It had a lot of background about the inner workings of the media, the different relationships and the different positions within them, the rivalries between competing networks. I've had no interest in attaining a job in the media, and after reading this, I don't think I ever will. It seems STRESSFUL. And if I ever had to work with a David who kept using the word "sexy" in every single sentence, I don't think I'd even last a week.

Jolene really annoyed me throughout the book. I understand that she was under immense amounts of pressure from her team and her own desire to get information before anyone else did (and pretty much failing every time to do so), but she just kept making poor decisions. Her only major break for most of the book was the fact that she got the last interview with him before his death, but it really didn't seem to have much effect on any of the story. Also, the way the police was investigating really didn't make sense, especially when you found out what killed Larry. Why on earth wouldn't they test everything in the studio and only check his tox results?

The Oliver storyline also seemed completely unnecessary. If you took his character out of the book, nothing about the plot would change at all. And I know Norma was meant to be the obnoxious neighbor character, but she was somehow my favorite in the entire book.

It was a decent read, but I don't think investigative journalism type books are my cup of tea. I do appreciate the amount of background information that was put into the job, though. Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for an ARC of this book!

I really enjoyed this book. I received an ARC, but what a fluke - I’m an asu grad and know the area really well. This was a nice mystery novel, a light beach read. Jolene is a beat reporter who is looking for her big break, and she definitely finds it after radio personality Larry Lemmon dies. You won’t regret spending time trying to solve this one.

This book was a little hard to follow the characters and to keep track of who was who. Don’t feel a lot of buildup to the climax. Overall, it was just ok.

I was very grateful to have been invited to read this book. I’m not sure that the media tops my interests. The first half of this book was a little slow for me. It was more about the different media and news outlets fighting over the latest new bits of information on a controversial radio hosts sudden death. Trying to scoop each other and chasing down any leads. The second half of the book picked up once leads started having more real motive. And one of the reporters may have picked up a stalker who seems to know plenty about the case. It was a good read and if you like the media then you’ll love this book. Thank you for the opportunity!

Honestly didn't really know what to expect going into this read, but I really liked it anyway!

This was a fun read. I downloaded a bunch of other ARCs around the same time, and they were some not-so-good-reads, so this book was a breath of fresh air. I really enjoyed it. It really kept me guessing, which of course had me burning through it to get to the end. Solid debut.

What Did I Just Read?

OK! This book was Terrific and kept me in suspense! I could not turn the pages fast enough!

Off The Air is a great murder mystery….who did it! This story delivered and is unforgettable!

If you like a good Suspense Mystery this book is for you!

You know a book has you hooked when you are thinking about it when your not reading it and can’t get back to reading it quick enough! Well, this is that book!

No spoilers with my review! This is a must read for 2024!

This story had some interesting parts but felt repetitive. I loved the AZ details thrown in but overall just wasn't into it myself.

Jolene Garcia is a local TV reporter, When a controversial talk show host is murdered, Jolene is
competing with other local reporters for information, working her sources to stay a step ahead.
While an unaired interview with the dead host gives her a slight advantage, it doesn't last.
A game changer is when the network reporters show up. Being the first to report on the killer will
be a big career boost for Jolene - will she succeed?
#OffTheAirBook #NetGalley

You know how they say "write what you know"? Well, in the case of this book - about a TV news reporter written by a TV news reporter - I think the phrase should also add "that will make interesting reading." This book could have benefited from some heavy-handed editing in three specific places:

Even without knowing the author was a TV news reporter, I would have absolutely been able to tell that she was. I feel like she put in every anecdotal story of being a reporter in this book. It reminded me of the early aughts comedy movie American Pie where they repeatedly tell stories that begin "This one time at band camp..." Only in this case it was "This one time in the news room..." For me, after the fourth or fifth one in the first 20 percent alone took me out of the mystery and broke up the main story. I had no idea what was important to remember and what was just for side stories.

Every single side character (even the wife of one of the cameramen who never even appears on the page) has a back story and a name and an anecdotal story to go with them. There were so many named characters (some of whom only appeared on page once or were mentioned in passing) that I couldn't keep them straight, and stopped wanting to. Hardly any of these characters were likable. Unless this is going to become a series (which I haven't read anywhere that it will), there is really no need for alllllll these backstories.

Estes over-explains pretty much every reference to anything real. Jonestown, black widow spiders, places in and around Phoenix, the Tylenol poisoning case, illegal immigration, Trump's election campaign, how social media works... like everything. Does she think her readers have been living under a rock for the last 20 years and haven't heard of these things? I'm not sure. And it makes her main character, who is supposed to be a great reporter, seem like an uninformed idiot.

Speaking of the main character, Jolene - she comes across as a brand new reporter. I think she may be the first character with a backward character arc too. She becomes more slimy and ridiculous as the story continues. I wasn't rooting for her. I found her petty and jealous and self-absorbed and whiny and just... not a really good person. She was mean to her well-meaning neighbor for no reason. She accosted and threatened potential interviewees at inappropriate times. She took advantage of her one source and relied on him too heavily and then blamed him for not getting scoops. She is obsessed with a rival reporter. I just - how old is she supposed to be? Because this sounds like teenager behavior.

There is also some HEAVY-HANDED polarized political views in this book as well. The murder victim is a conservative radio host that loves guns, God, and smearing the liberal Government. His views are expressed along with many of his supporters and detractors. There are some heavy themes of immigration, building a wall, etc. While I understand that these are very big and important issues - especially in a border state like Arizona - they often got in the way of the actual story. The murder and the who-done-it.

For a book that was only 320 pages long, this felt much longer. The pace was agonizingly slow with a redundant "I have information but can't use it" - then "boohoo I got scooped so I'm going to be a sleaze-ball to get a better story." Over and over. While this may be realistic in TV news reporting, it did not make for compelling reading. Then the climax/"big reveal" was almost buried under a drivel of other information in the middle of a chapter. It was sooooo slow, and then BAM over. In short (unlike this review) the pacing was off.

I did enjoy the dialogue (some other reviews think there is too much), but I like a lot of white space and dialogue. Some of the behind the scenes of a newsroom was interesting to learn about (the first time it was mentioned). And I did enjoy learning about life in Arizona. Honestly, though, if this weren't an ARC, I probably would have DNFd it around 30-40%. I just didn't care about any of the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for allowing me to honestly review this ARC copy. I sincerely wish the author luck and I know this book will appeal to some - maybe especially those who live in Arizona and/or are in the TV news field.

Jolene Garcia is a feature tv reporter who happens to be the last person to interview a controversial talk show host before his suspicious death. Facing pressure from her station and other reporters, Jolene seeks to figure out the circumstances surrounding his death. Author Christina Estes offers a unique perspective from her journalistic experience.

Jolene Garcia is a local TV reporter in Phoenix, Arizona, who splits her time between covering general interest assignments and working on special projects. Her most recent interview was with Larry Lemmon, “America’s true conservative voice”- and a controversial radio talk show host who was best known for his stance on pushing for a border wall, even before Trump did.

When word gets out about a death at Lemmon’s radio station, KFRK, Jolene and Nate Thompson, her photographer, rush to the scene-hoping to be able to report the facts first.

This could be a career-making story.

When the body is identified as Larry Lemmon, Jolene hopes that because she conducted his final interview, it would give her and her station an advantage. But as she chases the story, she finds herself always one step behind her nemesis, JJ, who reports for a rival station.

Colleagues and those with different political views, were just a few of the people who might want Lemmon dead. But who actually followed through with his murder?

Emmy Award winning reporter Cristina Estes is a Tony Hillerman Prize winner for this debut in the “Best First Mystery set in the Southwest” category-but I had a few problems with it.

It is chock full of facts past and present about my home State- Arizona, highlighting the good, the bad, and the ugly. (Mostly the last two, but I guess that is what reporters see more of)

It is also so loaded with facts about how reporting has changed over the years from just reporting a story and competing for ratings, to competing for clicks on Social Media, and racing to be the first to “tweet” a breaking story.

So much so, that the story often read like an expose on the “cut throat day in the life of a journalist”- rather than as fiction-and the over abundance of facts took me out of the story, and slowed down the pace.

Also, a negative for me-that POLITICS played a big role in the narrative.

One thing I can say- when I found out what Lemmon did to get himself killed-I agreed with the PERP who declared that Lemmon got what was coming to him. 😉

TRIGGER WARNINGS thoughtfully provided by the author in alphabetical order: References to abandonment, ageism, animal cruelty, child neglect, classism, homelessness, racism, sexism, sexual coercion, and substance abuse.

Expected Publication Date: March 26, 2024

Thank You to Minotaur books for mailing me a gifted copy. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Off the Air is a book that's hard for me to rate. Sure, the mystery was interesting to keep me invested with each clue we could find. Yet, I didn't like how our main girl, Jolene, was being treated by her own coworkers. Or, honestly, the new guy who just moved in. Now he's someone who needs to learn what the word "no" means and accept it. As for work, I was kind of hoping she would quit at the end.

For the actual murder mystery, we had a lot of suspects to go through and finding clues wasn't easy. The second Jolene got a whiff of something or someone, they would already be talking to some other reporter. When she finally put the pieces of the puzzle together, and sort of went rogue, I wasn't a fan of the truth that came out.

Don't get me wrong, it was a great reason to you know unalive someone, but I would've called the police. Without spoiling anything, it just put me in a bad mood and I'm not sad about the death at all. In the end, I'm glad I got the chance to dive into this. At first, I got vibes of 'Only Murders in the Building' season 3 and that's probably why I kept turning the pages to see what would happen next.

Going into the novel, I was thinking cozy, whodunnit mystery in the media industry. The beginning had me hooked with a reporter on her last leg trying to catch a break on a potential homicide of a well known local personality. The middle lulled as time went on and we added more and more suspects to the list. However, the end significantly picked up and we got a majority of the action in the last quarter of the novel. The novel was competing between being a reporter trying to stay ahead of the story and trying to manage her personal relationships, honestly I could have had less in Jolene's personal life.

This book, a debut, I’m impressed. The premise reeled me in – I'm a sucker for anything delving into the behind-the-scenes chaos of TV news. No book description from me because, let's be real, I like to roll into a story blindfolded.

Brace yourself for a dive into the moral maze of being the first to break a story, consequences be darned. It's all about the ever-evolving landscape of news delivery. Toss in the mysterious death of a controversial talk show host, sprinkle in our ambitious reporter, Jolene, hungering for that Emmy, no matter what it takes and you've got yourself a feast of moral dilemmas, twists, and turns.

It’s not as fast paced as I make it sound but it’s still engaging, the characters are fun, the story's a rollercoaster, and did I mention it's a debut?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was fine. It wasn’t exactly a book that I enjoyed and I think it’s just because it was more of a reporter style book rather than a police procedural style. Overall the story was entertaining and I think if you like stories about reporters point of view in an investigation, then you’ll likely enjoy this book.

This was a fun romp through Arizona’s local news community! It was definitely light reading, but I enjoyed it and it read pretty fast. I was expecting it to drag a bit, but it didn’t in any part Jolene was a fun character and kept me engaged throughout the story. Her wacky cast of characters added to things, even if it made for slightly confusing times where I had to flip back a few pages to keep people straight. All in all, a pretty solid story, and I really enjoyed my advanced reader copy!

This murder mystery takes place in Phoenix and the main character is a reporter. The pacing and plotting were good.

The story does a good job of showing how difficult modern local reporting is and how challenging the task of adding the social media layer to the already difficult task of reporting must be.

There were lots of potential murderers, which made the puzzle of figuring out who did it a good challenge.

I enjoyed this story.