I've been a fan of Clare Carlson since the first book. I love how the titles are connected to media terms, like Last Scoop, or Below the Fold.

It took me a while to get to this book. I missed all the publication dates with my review. But I decided to give it ago anyway. I was attracted by description and the fact that main character is journalist (close to my heart).
However, this book took a while to interest me. Plus, I did not really understand what was the main plot: mafia scandal or serial murders. And I found 'shop talk' of newsroom and news broadcast a bit too much. It felt like the author was filling up pages with copy-and-paste tv news script.
BUT. I did like Clare and I could identify with her on many points. And I read the book to the end. Honest.
I did not read the previous books in the series and believe I will leave it at that.
This book was interesting when it was interesting and was dragging when it was too detailed and too slow to let the plot to develop.

i really enjoyed reading this, the mystery was great and it really added to the suspenseful atmosphere. I liked the characters and enjoyed reading this.

Just a test of the netgalley system. Just a test of the netgalley system. Just a test of the netgalley system. Just a test of the netgalley system.

professional and gripping - this is almost a relentlessly engaging read - what makes it work so well are the realistic characters - well, okay, there is some contrivance - and I sometimes felt a strain reading the pumped up badness of the killer she is now on the track to find - but it moves so fast, there's hardly time to worry about it. really impressive - and I'll look forward to more by this writer ...

A writer all his life, first as a working journalist, now as a creator of mysteries, Belsky knows how to hook a reader.
His opening line for the Last Scoop, " I am a woman who deals in lies for a living" caught me in his mysterious net.. This is book 3 for Clare Carlson. Intended to be a stand alone protagonist, she so interesting that readers wanted more. The Last Scoop was my introduction to Clare, A news director for Channel 10 News, NYC, she is a fascinating mixture of intelligence, savvy on the job, wise with a personal life that is often in shambles. Above all, she is unswerving in her commitment to the ethical and factual reporting of the news. As she tells us, she is all about the truth.

When Marty Barlow, a retired editor who never stopped seeking a byline, is murdered, Clare must admit to herself a strong feeling of guilt. She had dodged him when he contacted her about a what he called the biggest story of his life. Yes she met with him, no she did not pursue his suggestions. Now Marty is murdered, and Clare decides to look into his notes. Just out of respect, of course, there most likely is nothing to see here.
What she uncovers is a spiraling tale of corruption in New York City that is tied to a serial murderer. When Clare breaks the story, she is unaware that this might be even more important than the reporting that won her a Pulitzer Prize. One is tempted to stay up reading just one more chapter as Clare relates the story to us.

I appreciate that Clare is honest about her messed up personal life. That she was able to begin to resolve a hidden source of pain in book three leads this reader to hope other matters can be reasoned out as well.
I also appreciate Belsky's understanding of journalism in the 21st Century. He was a notable journalist, serving as an editor at the New York Post, and also wrote for NBC news. This enthusiasm for reporting shows in his creation of Clare and her world. I look forward to the next installment in her life.

Full disclosure: I received this ARC from netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you for this opportunity

Clare Carlson was a tenacious journalist. She had learnt from an old timer Martin Barlow and to her regret she found that during the last year she had not made enough time for him and now it was too late as he was found dead. No one wants to believe there was foul play but Clare knows that there is a story behind his death.

How big the story was, was the unknown part as it took a lot of digging, a lot of threats from the mob and from other important people including Martin's own family and she ruffled a lot of feathers both at the TV station where she worked and the Police with her reveals.

There are cover ups and conspiracies, there is a lot of guilt over neglect and over extra marital affairs, there are lots of strands but they are woven together very well to bring forward an exceptional story.

The series is new to me and though this was the third book, it did well as a stand alone.

When Clare Carlson's former mentor, Martin Barlow is found murdered, her investigative skills take over. As she follows his last story, it leads her in several directions. I found it intriguing to follow her methods and story as Clare uncovers more about Martin and those he had connected with before his death. Although this is a series, I had not read others in it, and found that I was able to follow!

Overall a good book with great insight in to the changing world of journalism. Stunning conclusion, and interesting characters. Will certainly read more by this author.

Very entertaining plot and well developed characters with many twists. Endings were convincing with loose ends tied nicely -- except for Brett and Dani:)
Thanks to Oceanview Publishing and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Oceanview for a complimentary copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Last Scoop
By: R. G. Belsky


REVIEW ☆☆☆☆
The Last Scoop is part of a series which I have not read; however, I found that it reads fine as a standalone. The heroine, Clare, is a bit of a hot mess in her personal life, but a total professional in her work life. She is a newswoman and good at her job. Tragically, her mentor is killed, and Clare feels guilty about not seeing this person often enough. She decides to look into what he was working on, and his last scoop turns into much more than Clare anticipated, for example, a potential serial killer. Now, it is up to Clare to finish what her mentor started, but what if she is in danger of being a victim herself? This story is convoluted with several threads sort of going on at once, but it wasn't confusing. There is plenty of action, suspense, intrigue and dead ends to enjoy. Clare is a modern woman with problems, intelligence, strength and determination to solve this case. This book is a thrilling read, and I fully intend to read more about Clare.

Another 5-star read for me! Clare is a flawed but lovable character who has been married and divorced several times and is obsessed with her job at the newsroom. When her good friend Martin is the victim of a senseless murder one night, she vows to get to the bottom of it. But there's more to this story than meets the eye and she gets caught up in a political scandal that involves corruption at the highest level. And then there's the serial killer angle that goes back years and links several seemingly-unrelated victims to each other through DNA. How are these cases similar? Clare is relentless in her pursuit of the truth and it's shocking when it's revealed. Keeps you on the edge of your seat through the entire book!

The Last Scoop is a well written thriller. A real page turner that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I look forward to reading more books in this series. My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance ebook. This is my unbiased review.

The Last Scoop by R. G. Belsky is a highly recommended mystery and the third in the Clare Carlson series.

Clare Carlson is the news director of a New York City Channel 10 News. When she learns about the death of her mentor and first newspaper editor Martin Barlow, she is remorseful that she wasn't able to meet with him when he contacted her, telling her that he was working on the biggest story of his career and wanted to share information concerning his investigation. Clare decides to look into the files on the stories he was researching. The first story has ties to the New York District Attorney Terri Hartwell's political aspirations and mob owned property. She also discovers he had evidence about a serial killer he’s dubbed "The Wanderer" who has been killing women for years. Clare takes some risks with her job and her life to break the stories.

The Last Scoop really contains two different stories. They have some ties with each other and are somewhat connected, but are really presented as two different stories rather than connecting stories that Clare is working on simultaneously. And the novel is presented as having multiple parts. I was intrigued at the beginning of the novel and basically enjoyed it to the end, but I did feel that the presentation could have been better. I wanted the story of The Wanderer, and although I can appreciate the first story, my interest in the whole novel would have been higher if everything was tied together more tightly.

Although this is the third book in the series, this is the first novel Clare Carlson novel I have read, so it can be read as a standalone. You would likely get more background details on Clare from the previous novels, but enough information is presented to understand her character. Some readers might be put-off by her disastrous personal life, but it is easy to focus on the information she is uncovering while looking into Barlow's research notes. Clare's inclination seems to be to make poor choices in her personal life.

The writing is good and captures the tone of current journalism in the news business well. Past cases are mentioned, but new readers will be able to follow the story. There was one ending of a story arch I loved. I enjoyed most of the novel except the final denouement of the whole novel which was disappointing to me and a letdown after the fast pace of the narrative up to the end. I did enjoy The Last Scoop and would read the next Clare Carlson novel.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Oceanview Publishing.
The review will be posted on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Sometimes I say there's newspaper ink in my blood. My uncles owned and worked for newspapers. I've been an editor for several newsletters. Therefore, I was interested in The Last Scoop.
Clare Carlson is a news director who says: "I'm a woman who deals in lies for a living......My job is to catch people in their lies and expose these lies to the world."
Clare's mentor has been killed. Out of guilt because she hadn't seen him in months, she visits his family and gets his laptop to learn about the last scoop that he was working on.
The mentor has been working on several stories -- they are all jumbled together. In addition, this is the third Clare Carlson book., thus it refers to events and lovers from books one and two. I got confused and almost quit, but I'm glad I didn't.
In sum, there's a serial killer that no one knew about. Before the mentor died, he realized 19 murders in the past thirty years are all connected to one killer.
There were several twists and surprises toward the end. I like surprises!
The author @RGBelsky tells us at the end how he and his character Clare are similar. I want to read more of his books.
Thanks to Netgalley.and Oceanview Publishing for permitting me to read The Last Scoop.

I really enjoyed this book, the multiple storylines, the main character and her relationship to truth and the pursuit of it. I was surprised it was written by a man since she was so believable. This is book three of a series and it worked as a stand alone and it made me want to go back and read his other books in the series. 4.5

Solid, enjoyable writing, but a narrative that was so farfetched it got downright, laugh-out-loud silly. There were so many coincidences and people who turned out to be someone else that the plot ended up resembling a French farce. Quality writing in a mystery/thriller deserves a quality story worth telling, one that bears at least a passing connection with reality, and this wasn't it.

NOTE TO PUBLISHER - This is the second time I have read a .mobi file provided by you as an ARC and the second time the formatting was such a mess that I almost gave up even trying to read it. Paragraphing missing altogether, paragraphing thrown in where there shouldn't have been any paragraphing, words mysterious split into meaningless pieces (even some of the chapter headings were split up!), and the font suddenly turning to bold for a few pages then going back to normal. How in the world is it possible that a reputable publisher can't produce a simple .mobi file without screwing up the formatting? No other publisher has that problem. Not even the humblest self-publisher has that problem. You are showing grave disrespect to your authors by distributing ARCs of their hard work that are such a mess. You really should be ashamed of yourself.

This would have been a pretty good book, except for one thing that bugged the heck out of me.

The plot is intricate, yet easy to follow. The pace intensifies as we move along in the story of Clare, a television news director with a solid background in print reporting. The dialogue is fresh and realistic. The tale of Clare finishing the final story of her revered mentor is appealing.

What bothered from the get-go was that Clare is portrayed as that cliche, a successful professional woman whose private life is an utter mess. Think the Holly Hunter character in Broadcast News.

Bear in mind that I haven't read the first two installments in this series (more bonus points! It worked as a standalone!) Maybe the author depicted Clare more fully in those earlier books, but here, it was just such a letdown to fall back on that tired, old dichotomy. I mean, we can show that a character is flawed without painting them as a total mess.

Thanks to NetGalley and Oceanview Publishing for an advance readers copy.

I had a hard time putting this book down. It read easy and fast. There were some “sit on the edge of your seat” moments. This is about a newswoman who climbed up through the ranks and like many people, always “ran out of time” to have coffee with her mentor. An excellent newsman in his time. Once he’s mugged, she just can’t get that last big story he said he was working on out of her mind.

This is really unusual in that there is only one main character, Claire the newswoman. Oh, she talks with her BFF now and then and a few other people. I didn’t even realize this until after I read the book. There might have been a little old love interest and an FBI agent involved and of course, Claire had a boss. But somehow, R. G. Belsky kept my interest with Claire’s thoughts throughout this whole book. I understood her, felt her strength, and felt her curiosity. Good book. Worth your time to read.

This is Book 3 in a series titled “Claire Carlson Mystery”. Belsky has several books published. All have good reviews.

In The Last Scoop, the third book in the Clare Carlson Mystery Series, author R.G. Belsky weaves a riveting mystery tale that easily draws the reader into New York Channel 10 News Director Clare Carlson's latest investigation.

The story begins with the random street murder of Clare's mentor and first newspaper editor, retired journalist Martin Barlow. Even though Martin was retired, he remained active in local NYC politics and community events. He even had a website dedicated to the suggestion that there is corruption between NYC politicians, the mob, greedy wealthy landlords, and the city government. Martin and Clare had kept in touch, and Martin tried to tell her about the two big stories that he had been working on: (1) the alleged corruption between the mob and NYC government, and (2) a thirty year old search for a serial killer possibly linked to the murders of twenty young women. Clare never checked out his tips and leads, she considered them ramblings of an old man, but now she feels guilty and is determined to follow through on Martin's last news scoops.

As Clare delves into the investigation of Martin's two big story scoops, she finds that there are more questions than answers, a growing list of suspects, deeply buried secrets, mobsters, a serial killer, and the intertwining of Clare's personal and professional lives and her dark past that continues to come to the surface.

The Last Scoop is a captivating mystery tale that is rich in detail and vivid descriptions. It has enough intriguing and suspenseful twists and turns that leaves the reader with no other option than to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next. As a diehard fan of mystery tales, I must admit that this third installment in the series is my favorite. The complexity of the two story scoops and Clare's investigation kept me thoroughly riveted and so engrossed, I couldn't help but try and guess the outcome as Clare puts all the pieces of the puzzle together.

With a complex and realistic cast of characters, the author does a phenomenal job of transporting the reader into this fast-paced white-knuckle storyline. The thrilling cat-n-mouse game engages the reader to follow Clare's investigation as she tries to follow the notes and leads from the two stories that Martin had been working on prior to his death. The jaw-dropping surprise ending will leave the reader completely speechless. It just doesn't get any better than this!

The Last Scoop is one heck of an adrenaline rush that is a must-read for the true diehard mystery junkies!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest book review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours.