Off The Air gave me a behind the scenes look at local television news reporters. The Phoenix setting also provided references to several local establishments. A well plotted mystery with several suspects. I hope this will turn into a series. I loved the cast of characters and would love to read more
I really enjoyed this book.

Thank you to the publisher for an advanced copy of this book. This is my honest review.

Right from the get go I found this book politically polarizing. I did not enjoy this one at all and I really disliked Jolene from the start. I am, however thankful to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC

Jolene is a journalist who is hoping to solve a local murder to make a name for herself. I found from reading this book I really do not like reading about the cut throat world of journalism. While the story was pretty good I found myself skimming.

Christina Estes clearly brought her many years of experience as a broadcast journalist to this debut mystery novel. There's a ton of detail about the process of producing television news, particularly local television news, and that lends plenty of credibility to the protagonist, a broadcast journalist in Phoenix, AZ. Unfortunately, this just wasn't for me. The professional news stuff was really too in the weeds for me, and the writing didn't always flow well - it read more like journalism than narrative fiction in several places. I felt like the mystery and any sort of engagement I had with it was overshadowed by the protagonist's heavy focus on the ins and outs of reporting a breaking story. I also thought the main character was a bit of a jerk - there's good reason for her to be overzealous within the scope of the narrative, but I just didn't really like her. I would still read more from Christina Estes as she makes the transition from journalism to fiction, but this particular novel didn't do much for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I want to preface this by saying my review is approximately 2000 words and it is solely for fellow readers and not for the author. I understand this is a debut novel and am doing my best to keep that in mind. I will be splitting this review into parts:

Pacing/writing/editing

General plot

Main character

Characters (or caricatures, I should say)

Heavy handed political commentary

Pro-cop/pro-military/pro-TSA sentiments

Conclusion

I unfortunately have nothing positive to say about this novel other than justice for Norma. Let an elderly chat the ear off you every now and then. There’s no need to be rude to a lonely heartbroken neighbour. 

Pacing/writing/editing

The first thing I noticed about this book is that it’s nearly entirely dialogue. It reads just like a lengthy newspaper article, with what feels like interview clips (since most of the dialogue is interviews) as well as the backstory behind certain elements of the story that would round out the newspaper article for the uninformed laymen. However, I am not an uninformed laymen. The author would mention something, such as a residential school, and take half a page to explain that concept to the reader. Do you really not expect me to understand why a news station would have a mail scanner? Or what a mail scanner is? Why wouldn’t I know what Jonestown is and more importantly how does Jolene, the FMC, not know about Jonestown? OR Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure? The author thanks a contributor to the residential school paragraph in her acknowledgements. This would be great if residential schools were actually in any way involved in the story. Instead it feels like a cheap attempt to be politically correct as we are given the (unnecessary) history of various places around Phoenix throughout the book. If the unnecessary infodumps about things that don’t need to be explained, such as Jonestown or the Tylenol cyanide poisonings, were removed I think this book would be a few chapters shorter. Ultimately this book felt like reading a play with no stage directions. It felt faced past because almost the entire book was conversations related to the murder/her role as a journalist. I feel that a better editor would have pointed this out and fixed it before publication. 

General plot

Now there’s a few things that have gone wrong here in the plot. Upon receiving information from the PIO, who informs the media they’ll be running a toxicology report as it’s a suspicious death, she goes “oh! A toxicology report?! I wonder why!”. Shouldn’t she know that already?? It was also an obvious set up to poison being identified as the murder weapon. Originally it was suspected to be cyanide in the almond cookies. Now any person could have figured out that cyanide was involved once they heard about the almond cookies and the symptoms Larry experienced before dying. However not once is it mentioned if the police tested the cookies or tested the tins for fingerprints/dna/evidence. It’s ultimately revealed that the cyanide was in Larry’s coffee. But cyanide works in literal seconds. He had the coffee in the morning. Didn’t die until noon. Not so sure that’s how it should have gone down!!

In addition, Jolene was by and far the worst part of this book. Incredibly unlikeable, selfish, and constantly bordering on unethical. The book is described as being a sort of what will happen first: will the murder who’s threatening her life hurt her before she can figure it out? And it is made to seem like there are attempts being made on her life. Instead, she receives a vaguely threatening note and a folder with a thumb drive of audio recordings in it. When the murderer is revealed, it’s not even mentioned why he sent those items to Jolene. Why would he have sent those to her? She wasn’t getting any breaks in the case, her informant wanted to be off the record, and she had no credible evidence stacked up against ANYONE. So why was he sending her those items? Why was he threatening her? 

Jolene

I hated this woman and honestly I wanted her to fail. Did the author intend to make her main character unlikeable? Or was she trying to make her relatable? Because she’s not relatable? Jolene is rude to every single person around her. Norma just wanted a friend. Rude. Oliver seemed relatively harmless but she was too judgemental to even think about talking to him. I also can’t figure out why Oliver was included in the story. Jolene, at every turn, was being down right rude. Her internalised misogyny was so uncalled for. When you present women who have bleached hair and spray tans, wear high heels and blingy jewellery, as corrupt and immoral, you are not being a friend to your fellow women. That is, once again, rude. When the young journalist didn’t want to do the undercover assignment, Jolene said “it looks like I asked her to rob a bank”. Jolene then goes on to explain why filming people in their place of work and airing it without their permission is fine. Just because Arizona is a one party state doesn’t make it ethical, Jolene! Your protege was right to be concerned. At many points in this story Jolene did things that I personally think would be unethical for a reporter to do, even a desperate reporter. If Jolene is the sort of character that represents the average reporter, I have to say I understand why people hate reporters so fucking much.  I also want to add that the author chose to make Jolene a survivor of the foster kid system as a result of the author’s time as a foster parent. I don’t really think being a foster parent gives you the ability to write a book from the perspective of someone who was in foster homes. Which, by the way, are barely mentioned. There’s very little backstory provided to Jolene at all. You don’t learn about her foster homes, or the names of any foster parents. Instead you learn about a girl named Kimmy who inspired Jolene to start telling people her parents died in a car crash. That girl is never mentioned again. Another example of the unnecessary backstory in the book.

Characters

One thing I noticed about this book is that there were no nuances to any of the characters. All the characters were incredibly black or white. They were either too left leaning for the main character or too right wing for her. Left leaning was something as wild (and relatively reasonable) as believing news channels should be run as a non profit instead of making money for corporations. Every character in this book felt like a caricature of a real person. I think the constant attacks against JJ’s appearance and personality made her feel like she wasn’t real. The characters were only there to move the story forward in a specific way, and their characterizations didn’t deviate from that line. I think one characterization I really take issue with is the mailroom sorter, Hussein. We get extensive backstory on him that’s written to be like he’s the true American dream, after growing up in a refugee camp in Kenya he was able to come to Arizona with his wife, where he now has five kids and has to work two jobs to support them. Their conversation is also then marked by his broken English. It felt like an attempt to counter the discussions about illegal immigration from the right wing characters but it was done in a way that made me uncomfortable. Hussein is mentioned one more time in the book. His backstory was incredibly unnecessary and just makes the author seem like she’s trying to be a Good White Woman. I do have a genuine question tho as a Canadian re the politics: is this the general vibe of Arizona? Are there that many second amendment etc “freaks” out there? Does every single person in the state who is even a little right wing behave and talk like the characters in this book? I suppose that leads me to my 5th point.

Heavy handed political commentary

Now, I know the author is a seasoned journalist with experience in politics. I understand that a fair and free press is crucial to the democratic institution. However, this author goes so hard on her politics it feels like it’s being shoved down my throat. And I say that as what Larry would call a “bleeding heart liberal”. I literally have a degree in women’s studies. Except I also can’t figure out what the author’s politics are. There are some really weird phrases in here about drug use and cops that made me go “oh that’s kinda icky…who is this being marketed towards?”. I ask that because the antagonist and all the people demonstrated as being bad are portrayed as right wing nuts, and then all of the sudden she says things like “police provide a community service” and is talking about dirty needles in parks. Where on the spectrum are you writing from, Christina!? I think that this author feels white women guilt for how many white women voted for Trump in 2016. It feels like she’s trying to overcompensate for the embarrassment of being associated with them.

Weird pro-cop pro-military vibes.

I gotta admit, defending the TSA is a weird hill to die on. But if you want to approach this book as being written by an author who thinks the things Larry and his colleagues were saying are bad, you will likely assume the author is left leaning. Which to me means acknowledging that cops don’t provide a community service and punish instead of prevent or protect. I find it difficult to believe someone who grew up in foster care in her situation would be so willing to view police as providing a community service when kids removed from homes due to parental drug abuse have likely seen the cops destroy their family a few times. I’m not a foster parent nor was I in the foster care system, but I do understand the role the police play in that relationship and I struggle to believe she would view the police in a positive light. Unfortunately I can’t know the real answer to this as not nearly enough backstory is actually given to the main character herself. Following that, there are just some weird phrases about the military and veterans. Yes I believe we should respect our veterans but we don’t need to be licking their boots. The military is bad, ultimately. And this is another reason I can’t figure out the politics of this book. It’s definitely not neutral, and it’s not right wing, but is it left wing???? I don’t think so. Not with this ‘tude!

Conclusion

To me this book feels like it was written by a white woman who feels bad that so many white women voted for Trump and now feels like she has to make up for it. It reads exactly as tho a journalist wrote it, which is not a compliment. It feels like an over 200 page long newspaper article, with no directions or relevant backstory. The backstories that ARE included are long winded and irrelevant 90% of the time. It took me out of the story every time. The political commentary throughout the book also confused me, maybe because I just don’t know if Arizona is really like that or because I can’t figure out what sort of politics the author is trying to portray in this book (or if she’s trying to portray anything at all? Because she is. She really is. Even if she isn’t trying). I simply cannot recommend this book.

A thoroughly enjoyable debut novel written by a television journalist about an up-and-coming tv news reporter in the Phoenix market. At its core, this is a whodunnit story about a shock jock tv personality in the age of Trump who mysteriously dies while on set. Jolene, the reporter, is doing everything possible to break the case open with a winning news report after being the last person to interview the victim before he died. There are numerous twists and turns in the lineup of suspects that Jolene races to interview only to be scooped multiple times by a shiny and more polished reporter from another station who is both Jolene's competitor and her nemesis. Add in a trusted source who has chosen to go cold rather than help Jolene, and you have a great recipe for a page-turner. For me, I connected with Jolene from the early pages, rooting for her even with the questionable decisions she makes to get to the truth and break the story. Great writing, great insights for the reader on what it's like to work in a local/metro newsroom, and a clever story. Is this the first in a series and will we be seeing Jolene crack another case in the future? I sure hope this is just the beginning for Estes' novel writing and for Jolene's adventures. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this advance copy in exchange for my review.

Wow this book was fun! I read a lot of thrillers but I don't think I've ever read a mystery quite like this.
I really enjoyed Jolene a lot. I liked how driven she was and that she really just gave no f***s.
When a book has a main character that you either really like or can see how others might dislike them, for me that makes the story that much better.
This was a page turner for me 100%, I read it over and could not put it down.
I cannot wait to read more from Christina in the future!

Overall, I enjoyed this book. There were some points where the amount of detail felt unnecessary and the plot lagged but the ending delivered the punch needed to redeem. A solid 3 stars that I would tell people to give a chance if they were interested.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Jolene Garcia is a reporter for a television station who is sent to a radio station to cover the scene of a death of one of their talk radio hosts. Jolene is ambitious and wants to get the scoop on the story.

When another reporter, one who scooped her on an Emmy award the year before, grabs an interview with the man everyone wants to talk to and the same woman later breaks the news that there might be poison involved, Jolene is on an even more urgent quest to get the story first.

Initially, I liked Jolene as she seemed klutzy and quirky. As the book went on, I started to dislike her. She was definitely ambitious and didn’t hesitate to be unkind or rude when she was stressed or jealous. Her back story explained some of her behavior but her alienation of colleagues and friends was annoying and made her dislikable.

The story itself was great. Lots of mystery and wondering how the talk show host died. A plethora of suspects were woven into the story and made the book fully rounded and a good read.

The obligatory detective friend who gets annoyed at the amateur sleuth and the obligatory bone-headed move by the same amateur sleuth was true to the tropes of the genre.

Overall, I liked the story and it was well worth the read. I just wish the protagonist was a bit more pleasant and a little less jealous and unkind.

Three and a half stars.

Thank you very much for giving me an opportunity to read this, but this is not my type of book. I didn't even attempt to read it after the first chapter. I don't like the style of writing and it's just not for me.

I was very much intrigued by the premise of this story. The story started off very strong, I liked the build up and the writing style. Sadly, it was downhill from about the 25% mark....I got about halfway through the book before I had to stop. The reason I stopped was solely because the book got WAY to political. I swear ever other word had to deal with politics. I am not someone who gets annoyed when politics are discussed in books but this was just way to much for me. The amount of talk about ideologies took away from the story.

Thank you to the publisher and net galley for the ARC of this book. all opinions are my own.
Due to the current SMP boycott, I will not post my thoughts on this story until the concerns are addressed. At that time, I will be happy to post my full review.

2.5 stars. This is in no reflection of the author, her story or her writing, I think the plot and writing were actually quite good, however, I feel like it could of done with a bit more editing before publishing. There’s quite a bit of unnecessary (imo) filler stuff that could be taken out to make the story flow at a better pace. Again, my review isn’t a reflection on the author- more so on those assisting her.

Off the Air by Christina Estes While I never connected with the main character the quality of Ms. Estes writing kept me engaged so I did finish the book. The premiss of the book was entertaining and moved along well and all the other characters were entertaining. I found the main character ill equipped for her job and something of a nuisance. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

**not my usual type of book**

Jolene is a local reporter in the Greater Phoenix area. She and her cameraman (Nate) are alerted to a nearby radio station (KFRK) where it is rumored that the head show host, Larry Lemmon, has passed away. Jolene tries to talk to people as they come and go from the station and it is finally confirmed that Larry did, in fact, pass away - cause of death pending. What is interesting, though, is that potential foul play is suspected (but not yet verified) - one of the two batches of cookies delivered by an unknown woman that morning is rumored to have been laced with cyanide.

Jolene is unlike her fellow reporters (to the chagrin of her station manager) where she won’t burn a source or report on something until she is certain it has been verified. In the Lemmon case, that has Jolene bringing up the rear in terms of “news breaking facts”.

Will Jolene sacrifice her morals and stoop to her colleagues “questionable” journalistic practices or will she continue to honor her sources and the leads to try to beat the Exclusive on Lemmon’s killer?

This was my first book by Christina Estes and enjoyed this. I am typically into thrasher thrillers and this was a warm cozy mystery that had great character development and was so enjoyable to read! It was not very fast paced but was an attention gripping book and wonderful debut! Unputdownable!!!!!

Jolene Garcia is a TV reporter in Phoenix, AZ. She and her photographer, Nate, happen to be close when a news-breaking story breaks. A death has happened at a local radio station, nothing new worthy until the deceased is identified as controversial talk show host, Larry Lemmon. Jolene starts to work the story, hoping she can get the scoop. However, nothing goes her way, and she ends up losing more ground than gaining. As she works her way through the mystery of who killed Larry, she is turning up more twists than turns, so many suspects, so little time to get the story before the other new stations.

When I first read the description, I was interested in how the story might play out, however, the author tends to drag out and over explain references, situations, and past events. To the point, where I found myself skimming. I am not overly enthused about the main character, she got on my nerves, whiny at times, arrogant at times and could treat colleagues and sources badly with no thought to their feelings, all for the sake of getting the scoop. I can see where the competitiveness of the news industry can get ugly and cut-throat, all for the sake of ratings and the dollars of advertisers. It’s not the commentary of the story that bothers me but rather the writing style. The style didn’t engage me but rather annoyed me with over explanations. The characters didn’t come to life. It was an okay read at best for me.

This book was everything I wished it to be. Easy to read, funny, and even a mystery. I will definitely read more from this author.

What a fun book! Great characters, great mystery, great entertainment. I loved it and can’t wait to read more by this author.

I cant believe I am saying this, but I have been incredibly bored with this book. I think if maybe I read this at a different time I would have enjoyed this more. It took me forever to finish this novel and I honestly skimmed the last 50% (so much so I didn’t retain it … oops). This book is very political, which is ok, but I think that became too much of the plot. Overall, I think this book has some potential, but it needs to be refined in its plot and ability to captivate the audience. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing access to this novel.