This book offers an intriguing behind-the-scenes look at news broadcasting, providing insights that even those who don't regularly watch the news will find fascinating. The twists and turns of the mystery plot kept me engaged, and the ending was pleasantly unpredictable. However, some side plot lines felt unnecessary, and the main character's motivations seemed inconsistent. Initially driven by a commitment to reporting the truth, she later becomes focused solely on getting the scoop. Additionally, her lack of communication with the police department felt unrealistic for a newscaster. Despite these flaws, the interactions with her fellow news agents were enjoyable, and I could see potential for this story to evolve into a series. Overall, it was an entertaining read with a compelling premise.

I wanted to like this book, I really did. The premise a crime fiction genre with crime reporting was intriguing. Although this book did deliver a murder of a prominent man in society named Larry, and the inside scoop (so to say) and his investigation of journalist crime reporting from Jolene’s perspective, it lagged in pacing and failed to hold my interest. There were many random and overdone true crime scenarios that I didn’t feel necessary to the overall story and kind of halted the narrative, I believe these were added because of the author’s own background with journalism?? Perhaps this book would be for someone looking for true crime with a bit of fiction more than fiction with true crime…

This was a very quick read. It was a great story but i didn't like the politics written in to the story.
The ending was meh and predictable.

Winner of the last Tony Hillerman Prize given to an unpublished author for a first mystery novel set in the Southwest, Estes produced a thoroughly satisfying cozy mystery. Like many first time authors, much of Estes novel mirrors her professional life. Like her protagonist, Jolene Garcia, Estes has been an on air reporter for KJZZ in Phoenix. Unlike Jolene who is a newbie to Phoenix, Estes covered the news for over 20 years. This serves the reader well, as one of the hallmarks of a cozy is a complete understanding of the setting. Knowing the terrain has also brought accuracy to her characters. They think and speak as citizens of the desert. Unfettered from the East Coast bias, Estes is able to offer an entertaining mystery involving a insiders view of television news in a local market. Estes writes with a light touch, allowing Jolene to have wry reflections. Jolene, old enough to be seasoned, not yet jaded is very willing to go head to head with her nemesis, a rival reported. The death of the leading talk show host in this market propels Jolene towards solving the mystery. Running with an initial advantage, she now must stay ahead, or sink more than her career. A welcome addition to mysteries from the southwest.

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

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me. Yhe co tent was a little too dry and some of the scenes were more drug out and that made it hars to keep my attention. There was a bit more of a political undertone than I cared for as I was I looked for more of a comedic mystery. The idea was great but just wasn't for me with how it was executed.

A murder mystery with some education in journalism thrown in. The story centers around Jolene, a reporter for an Arizona news station who strives to keep up with some serious competition. She is a die hard journalist looking to finally make it in the news world and win an Emmy for best news story. So when a call comes in about the possible murder of a problematic radio host, Jolene knows this is the story she must break first. Only problem...trying to discover the truth and knowing who to trust.

This does center around Jolene figuring out the truth, but it's also about how she must persevere to get what she wants. Sometimes this alienates her and takes a toll on her relationships. And 80% of this book is educating the reader on journalism. So this isn't necessarily cozy or lighthearted. There was a very large political undertone and it felt a tad biased. I was a little thrown by this. The majority of the time Jolene is fighting to keep her reputation in tact and it definitely takes a certain type of person to be able to do her job.

I liked learning about journalism and news stations for the most part, and the murder mystery storyline was interesting, but the undertones and minor character development fell a bit flat. Basically everyone she talks to and interviews isn't a good person and there were a lot of them. I would say this is a good debut and Estes has potential to write some great books in the future.

Definitely check the trigger warnings and when you’re ready strap in for a classic cozy mystery. Super impressed this is a debut! This was a fun behind the scenes type of read so if you’ve ever wanted to know the tea about the newscasters that you watch on tv please give this one a go! Thanks to Dt. Martins Press and Netgalley for an advanced copy!

This book is absolutely not my jam. No reason to read about horrid, horrid characters in a boring book when you can turn on the TV and watch every single day. No thank youl.

Jolene Garcia is a reporter in Phoenix, trying to hustle to be first on the scene for any breaking news. She hits the scene at a building downtown that houses the radio station KFRK. She discovers one of the radio personalities has been murdered. Larry Lemmon was one of the first conservative talk show hosts. He called for shutting down the border before it was cool. Now, someone has shut him down for good. Jolene has a leg up on the other reporters at the scene; she was the last person to interview Lemmon before his murder. All the other reporters in Phoenix are on the hunt and Jolene has to act fast to keep her advantage. Written by an Emmy-award winning journalist, this book gives the reader a bird's eye view of life in the reporting business, which seem to be quite cutthroat.

EVERYONE'S DYING FOR A KILLER STORY.

Except I am still waiting for one. This was so boring, I expected so much more from a prize-winning book. I felt my eyes glaze over duing multiple parts of this story, and I just wanted more to happen.

The only thing I liked was Jolene's POV re: her job as an investigative journalist. I did not like her as a character, I thought she was a sheep and had little to no redeeming qualities by the end of the book. Kind of reminded me of a really bad take on the movie NIGHTWATCHER (which I highly recommend).

Thank you to Minotaur for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Definitely not my cup of tea. I’m sure there’s a target audience for this (conservatives), but I’m not it.

It took me longer than usual to get into this book because the beginning was a bit slow and parts of it were filled with politics that were a little too current/close to home. I read to get away from that, so I didn't read fast, but the 2nd half picked up quite a bit with more of the story about "whodunit." Parts of this were interesting to learn about the life of a reporter, but I felt like the people who would enjoy this are people that live in that world.
I bumped up my rating slightly for the mystery part of this, but overall it was mostly average for me.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for this advanced reading copy and NetGalley.
3.5 / 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book had a lot of potential and was an overall enjoyable read but it did seem a lot like a dry nonfiction book in places due to the number of facts that were thrown into the book.

The problem with this book is that it gave me no reason to care. Reading over 300 pages about a hateful conservative personality and his awful circle of friends and peers, was the worst.

The characters were flat and unexplored, the relationships and interactions were dull, the mystery was boring and unsympathetic — not to mention all crammed into the last 20% of the story — and the only real focus of the plot was on how a reporter gets a story.

I don’t watch American news anymore for a reason, the last thing I want is to read fiction about the same racist bigots who are going to be responsible for the downfall of American democracy. I could not have cared any less about anything that happened in this. I hope all the characters get hit by a Trump bus.

I was really excited to read this book but ultimately it fell short for me. It's a very, very slow burn and I found it difficult to get through. I also don't believe I'm the target audience for this book. There's a lot of journalism jargon and behind-the-scenes descriptions of what goes on with news reporters. It was written beautifully, but I'm not interested in that information and was excruciatingly bored. I had expected this book would focus more on the mystery/thriller rather than journalism, the history of Arizona, and political conversations. Alas, I was neither thrilled nor shrouded in mystery.

As always, thank you to NetGalley, Christina Estes, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed Off the Air. I love murder mysteries.

Off the Air could have been shorter. They were so scenes that simply felt like it was only to lengthen the book. The book would be been fine without them. I liked Jolene’s character but didn’t care for many of the other characters.

Overall, this was an enjoyable book and I plan to read more from Christina Estes.

This was different than my normal type of book. I think the story was good and would have been more interesting if the themes were something I was passionate about. There was a heavy amount of journalism focus. I had a hard time keeping my attention on it but the writing was easy to follow. The story did jump around a bit and the characters were a little silly.

This book was not what I was expecting for hoping for. I'm a big thriller reading and like a light mystery every now and then to cleanse my palate, this was not it. Too much focus in the reporting and political side of the story not much in terms of the mystery.

Rating more along 2.5 for me. Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur Books the opportunity of the early read.

Jolene is a reporter looking for her big break. When a controversial talk show host is found dead, and she was the last to interview him, this may just be it. I really wanted to like this book. The premise was fun and engaging. However, the story had a fatal flaw...politics. There's enough of politics and division in the real world, I don't want it in my fiction. While well-written, this one simply got bogged down with its subject matter. I was really hoping for something more light-hearted and fun.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all views expressed are my own.

This book has too much political talk and drama in the news room. I absolutely hate books like that. Also, I thought this was a mystery? Why didn't it more of a mystery. Ugh. big disappointment.