In this solid debut novel we meet Virginia, a journalist who becomes obsessed with the disappearance of a lovely lawyer, Evelyn. The circumstances surrounding Evelyn's disappearance are interesting....she meets her husband at a restaurant to tell him their marriage is over, leaves and basically vanishes. We get to know Virginia as she becomes further involved in the story of Evelyn's disappearance. We also get lots and lots of details about the inner workings of a newsroom which at times I enjoyed but I felt that there was sometimes too much newsroom happenings when I really wanted more focus on the disappearance of Evelyn. There's also a storyline dealing with Virginia's past home life which I have to say also took away from the main storyline. 
I thought the characters were well-written as I could really picture them in my mind. There were times I started to question Virginia's extreme obsession with Evelyn and times I thought she came across as kind of silly when she seemed to take action without thinking. Overall, this is a solid debut and I would read the next installment if it becomes a series.

I recently grabbed this one from Net Galley, a suspense mystery that’s a debut novel for Ms. Kovac. It was fast-paced and well-plotted. I was impressed with the incredible level of detail in the story, focusing on news production in DC and the behind the scenes events of making news come to life for viewers.

I’d love if this was the start of a series featuring this protagonist. Thank you for my review ecopy!
full review on my blog

Dead girls, they’re everywhere recently. A mystery is not a mystery without a dead girl, it seems. Evelyn Carney is the dead girl in Christina Kovac’s The Cutaway. A radiant woman living and working in Washington DC, surrounded by hungry, crooked people who are willing to put lives on the line for their career. But this book is not about Evelyn, not really. It is about Virginia Knightly, an ambitious, brilliant and brave news producer who will do anything for a story.

Evelyn’s murder is really only a subplot to Virginia’s story. Virginia is passionate about her career, her co-workers and the news, and when her new boss decides to take over, it seems that all of those things are on the line. Thankfully, Evelyn turns up missing and Virginia has a story to pursue, using her connections with sexy detectives and sexier news anchors to find leads before anybody else can. Really, she’s a pro and seems to get to places and find information even before the police. Yet, there is so much going on in Virginia’s life – dying father, career issues, boyfriend troubles – that Evelyn is always a afterthought, a topic that pops up every once in awhile, to recede back into the background for another few chapters.

If you like mystery, if you like political settings and strong women, then you will really enjoy The Cutaway. It is very slow paced but Virginia’s spunk makes up for it. Sort of. In places where the novel was faster paced, it did hold attention, but otherwise I found myself bored and skimming. I skimmed most of the book, which is why I can’t mark it as “read”. Cutthroat politics and law are not subjects I am well versed in so they did not draw me. Kovac obviously has experience in both, as well as in news reporting, and she knows how to write well, but realistic details and writing skills do not make good book. After being bored for so long, I just skipped to the end to find out what really happened to Evelyn. And all it made me do was go “huh”, that’s it.

Final thought: meh.

A cutaway is a news videographer’s means to break up a lengthy shot and create visual interest. In Kovac’s aptly named THE CUTAWAY, the short snippet that features a beautiful missing lawyer from upscale D.C. ends up as the fulcrum upon which the plot pivots. When Virginia Knightly, editor for an evening TV news show, hears about Evelyn Carney's disappearance, she is struck by the uniqueness of someone from the right side of the tracks going missing. As she investigates, she uncovers a husband with PTSD, a hidden but high-profile lover, corrupt politicians, embezzlement, and much more. There are so many possibilities that could have led to Evelyn's disappearance that the reader is unlikely to figure out the mystery ahead of Virginia. 

Kovac, who has extensive experience in both D.C. and TV newsrooms, packs this book with details about how both work. Politics, both office and governmental, play key roles in the narrative. There are multiple threads running through the plot, some political and some personal. Virginia's past surfaces along with her long missing father, and she struggles with two love interests. The busyness of the plot doesn't allow Kovac the space to fully develop the characters. It's clear that Kovac believes in the underlying goodness of people, but at times the conflicting perspectives on each character provide not nuance but confusion. 

THE CUTAWAY provides a fascinating glimpse into the world of an investigative reporter. So often in crime books the news media play a negative and/or disruptive role. Here, the reporters are the heroes. This book might be classified as a "news procedural," along the lines of a "police procedural" but with a different spin.

Combine a news director, a previous love affair with the head investigator, a scheming law firm, and the mysterious disappearance of a young woman, and a thriller is born.  Debut author Christina Kovac has created a tense, page-turner of a book in her first time out.  She highlights today's struggle to put out factual news and still keep the ratings up through lead character Virginia Knightley who chooses to ignore the management's directions and continues to investigate the disappearance and subsequent murder of a young Georgetown attorney.  Is the attorney's ex-military husband involved, as he struggles with PTSD?  How about the U.S. attorney, rumored to be having an affair with the young woman?  How is Knightley's ex-boyfriend involved, as he runs the investigation?  Is there something more than friendship with the lead anchor? And what is with the law firm where the victim worked?  Kovac forces you to furiously turn pages as you attempt to answer all these questions, giving you a few red herrings to chase down along the way as well as some complicated relationships among the characters to decipher.

I enjoyed this book as a mystery however I wouldn't categorize it as a thriller.  The setting of a newsroom was an interesting technique, and I found the scenes that involved the setting quite compelling. The heroine was a very layered character and I found her engaging. Ms. Kovac crafted a strongly plotted mystery. I appreciated that she did not telegraph the twists and that there were many complicated turns in the storyline. The pacing is even and the read, though not fast, was entertaining.

This is a solid mystery that moves fairly quickly.  Evelyn Carney was last seen leaving a restaurant alone after a domestic dispute in which she tells her husband she wants a divorce, and she is now missing. It seems like an open and closed case, but of course it is not. 

Told from the perspective of sassy and smart 34-year old television producer Virginia Knightly, getting to the bottom of Evelyn’s disappearance takes multiple twists and turns. Trying to identify the culprit kept me guessing, the clues sending me in different directions. But be forewarned, there is really no way of figuring it all out until near the end. 

An interesting whodunit with most everything tying up at the end, though I have a niggling suspicion the door is still open for characters to reappear in a follow-up book.

The Cutaway is about a news reporter in Washington DC with a photographic memory. It starts when a woman goes missing after a dinner date with her husband.

This was an interesting read, and I enjoyed the investigation through the eyes of a news reporter instead of the detective/cop. It twists and turns so you don't know who did it. You think you know before everyone else, and then you are wrong. It reminded me of The Trespasser by Tana French at times.

It was a little slow at times, and it randomly got really detailed into finances and corporate drama toward the end, but I enjoyed the book overall. It was a pretty quick read, and I feel smarter by reading it and understanding how the newsroom affects investigations.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC, for which I have given an honest and unbiased review*

Fun read!  Yes, although it's a crime mystery/thriller, it still was enjoyable to read.  My attention was captured immediately and was drawn into the mystery and all that surrounded it.  The author also does a great job of incorporating a secondary plot line that actually enhances the story and moves along with the original disappearance/crime.  There are times when reading this type of book that I cannot figure out why the second story is even being told.  Not so here.  I thought the tension in the newsroom for ratings and the anchor rivalry really added to the story.  Virginia was a great lead and I felt it was worth my time reading it.

Thanks to Atria Books and Netgalley for an eARC of this book. 
A great first novel. A woman has gone missing and Virginia Knightly, a tv producer, wants to know what has happened to her. The plot is engaging and mostly believable. The workings of a tv newsroom are fascinating. Parts were draggy and the book seemed longer than it was. All in all worth reading and I hope Virginia comes back in another book. 3.5 Stars.

Virginia Knightly is the evening news producer for the station affiliate in D.C. She has worked her way through the ranks & enjoys her job a great deal & loves the people she works with. Virginia is intrigued by a ‘missing’ person bulletin she sees for an attractive young D.C. attorney. She is haunted by the image on the bulletin & can’t shake the feeling that something just doesn’t feel right about the whole thing. Soon Virginia finds herself investigating the disappearance of Evelyn Carney & finds a tangled web of a politian & a police commander mixed up in Evelyn’s life. Virginia finds she doesn’t know who to trust & soon she is fighting for her career & her life to get to the bottom of what happened to Evelyn. When she finally believe she may have figured out who is actually responsible, a shocking turn of events proves to Virginia that she was not prepared for the truth.

This was a good debut effort by Christina Kovac. I was entertained & captivated by this psychological thriller from beginning to end. More than once it seemed that the trailed led to one murderer & it turned out that lies started the trail off in the first place. Part of this book deals with the real politics of champagne contributions & the layered games that are played to hide money. With our political climate the way it is today, I found this information scary & interesting at the same time. There sure seems like there is room for improvement in this area. (Enough about my opinions on politics this is a book review.) The Cutaway is a gripping tale of how people can use & manipulate others for their own benefit without ever batting an eye. But in the end, most sins catch up to everyone in one way or another.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book.

Virginia Knightly is a 34 year old news producer in Washington, DC.  One morning, she comes across a press release about a young attorney who is missing. Evelyn Carney was last seen eating dinner with her husband in a Georgetown restaurant.  Virginia connects the image of Evelyn to video footage from one of her TV productions.  Following her curiosity, Virginia starts to put together clues from Evelyn last few days.
 
The current atmosphere at Virginia’s TV station is tense after rumors of layoffs and falling ratings. Virginia becomes more immersed in Evelyn’s case after her producer demotes her to producing stories in the field.  She is perplexed to find a lack of urgency from law enforcement investigating the case. She feels that the detectives assigned to the case seem to be more concerned with Evelyn’s personal life and her possible ties to Washington politics.  Suspecting a cover- up from the police and the government, Virginia pushes herself to unravel all the loose ends.
 
This is a fast paced mystery interweaving politics, law enforcement and the free press.  This is a debut novel from Christina Kovac who worked for seventeen years managing and producing stories in Washington, DC newsrooms.

A woman disappears in Washington DC.  A television news producer investigates the disappearance and the woman's background.  Meanwhile there is all sorts of infighting and politicking going on at her station.  She becomes more and more involved with the case of the missing woman.  The plot is complex and the characters interesting in a very well written novel.  My only dislike was that we were never really introduced to our protagonist, although we were given background, etc., as the novel progressed.  The author did give some background of the victim at the onset however.  Thanks to Net Galley and Simon and Schuster for an ARC for an honest review.

Absorbing & well written. This is a book to loose yourself in (I turned off the tv & music to avoid distractions). The author kept me guessing who was friend and who was foe... with some surprises & plausible explanations.  Virginia is a strong female lead, with a soft side & well rounded back story that gave her depth. Something about this novel caused me to feel a sense of Déjà Vu, making  me think of classic Noir films from the 30s & 40s, so I placed Barbara Stanwyck in the role of Virginia. 

I decided to post my thoughts and chose leave a review after reading the advance ecopy of this book I received via Net Galley courtesy of Atria/37 Ink, the Publisher, who I thank for the opportunity.

Boring, slow and uninteresting. Too much detail. Really needs a shot of adrenaline.

Who can you trust?

When a young attorney goes missing, Virginia Knightly -- a television evening news producer, is drawn into the story and uncovers lies, perfidy and obstruction at every turn. Evelyn Carney disappeared after leaving her husband in a Georgetown restaurant. When she is later found dead, Virginia uses every member of her team, an old boyfriend who is the chief police investigator, and Evelyn's friends and partners to try to uncover what happened to the woman. Who killed her, and why? It becomes the focus of her life amid tumultous times at the news station. Set in Washington, DC where the movers and shakers reside adds another important dimension to the novel.

Unlike the usual thrillers I read, this novel is told from the view point of a news journalist. I know that we often think of them as invasive and unscruplous, and there are hints of the underhanded way that secrets and information are traded between the law enforcement side and the sensationalism bent of nightly news reporters. Virginia is no saint, but she is honest and digs into the story. Evelyn was married, but it seems she might have been having an illicit affair. Her paramour has not been charged, and the police seem to be evading the hard questions. Is there a coverup, and if so, for whom? It's a complex plot with lots of characters who each have individual personalities that add to the narrative. 

The story is not particularly fast-paced but the details are revealed in such fashion as to keep the reader hooked. I don't know much about how TV news is produced and those details were quite interesting as a sideline to the main point of the novel. So it's a mystery without the thriller chiller, but it caught me and kept me interested. I can't say I really liked Virginia, but enough was explained that I could understand most of how she behaved given her past. She will do just about anything to get her answers for her news broadcasts. The other characters were not so fully fleshed out. Can I say that I really didn't like the ending all that much?

I think any reader who likes a complicated mystery will appreciate this one. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-book ARC to review.

This book is a great mystery with interesting and well thought out characters. This book follows the disappearance of a young attorney in Washington DC from Virginia, a talented television producer. Virgina gets invested in the case of the missing lawyer and starts investigating the disappearance on her own.  This book is well written and fascinating. I highly recommend.

I am not sure where I want to go with this review. It definitely wasn't something I was expecting. The cover drew me in. After reading the blurb, I was curious if it would be something I would like. I am not always a fan of crime thrillers. This one definitely was right up my alley!

One of the main things I loved about this book is the perspective it was told from. To have the story given from the news side is not only unique, but it gave the story more intrigue. I definitely wasn't expecting to be so invested with this book.

The characters and plot are so well developed in this book. There wasn't a part in the book that I thought drug or made me want to roll my eyes. (Yes, that happens more often than I would like to admit.) I thought I had it all figured out, then I didn't, then I did... Then I thought the book was ending, but it wasn't finished yet. 

Kovac truly has a gift of storytelling. I have had this book stuck in the back of my head for days. DAYS. I can't stop going back to thinking about it. I highly recommend this book to just about anyone. If you can read, then you should read this book.

The Cutaway is a fantastic example of strong women in fiction. Christina Kovac writes with an intimate knowledge of the news room and the field having worked in the field herself on Capitol Hill. 

Something that I really appreciate about Kovac's style of writing and apparent world-view is her spirit of inclusion and equality - don't get me wrong, this book is NOT about that at all. If you are seeking a good page-flippin' thriller for your daily commute, spring break, or book club, this is absolutely your book. 

You won't be hit over the head with big "issues" and if you choose, you can easily sink into the escapism that is the brilliant writing of Kovac - replete with red herrings and characters who keep evolving to the last second, without having to think too much at all. But, she also has a way of including characters of racial minority in a way I've never experienced before. It is subtle; there is no reason to know the race of these characters as it doesn't inform their "experience" in the plot. And yet, she finds a way to make sure that the characters in your mind are a diverse cast and it's absolutely beautiful. 

As for the feminist perspective: again, this is not beaten over your head. But if you aren't a woman, she has a way of portraying the experience that can really allow a reader to step into the female characters' shoes with empathy. It's super subtle, and super cool. Virginia, our main character is a woman rising in the ranks of a high pressure job on her talent and work-ethic while staunchly defying the appearance-centric nature of the profession. The missing woman, Evelyn, is often defined by the sexual relationships she has in the story and her work is over-looked. Then of course, every peripheral female character deals with the reality of the scrutiny, safety concerns. and discrimination that nearly all women face in their daily lives. The female experience is something that is noticed, even commented on, in the book without it needing to be about that.

I will absolutely read anything that Ms Kovac writes, and am psyched to hear that there's already a second novel in the works!

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria, and Christina Kovac for the opportunity to read and review this eARC.