**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.

This book has it all… betrayal, politics and an ex wife. But who murdered the loud mouth of an on air personality? Let’s see if the on air tv personality can wrap herself up in it all just to out whit the most popular investigative reporter in town.
While I went in to this book not expecting laughs, I did have some on behalf of Jolene. There is a whole political world to dive into and who would be cunning enough to take down a man who spews build a wall on talk radio? Does he make his own enemies or are his enemies closer then he knows?

Review copy provided by the publisher.

An interesting read for sure, but I'm not sure how to characterize it. I wouldn't call it a thriller but it's not quite a cozy mystery either...

It's set in the world of investigative journalism, which was something a little different that I enjoyed. You can tell the author has real knowledge and experience in that field (and also of the Phoenix area). However, I was looking for something "unputdownable" and this wasn't that. The main character, Jolene, came across a little one dimensional at times and her misadventures in chasing the story/an "exclusive" became a little repetitive. Overall an OK read and an engaging enough central mystery, just not what I was expecting.

This book had some positives going for it, mainly seeing how cut throat the local news industry is. I've never read a book written from this vantage point, so in that respect, I did enjoy getting a look inside knowing the authors background there. The whodunnit plot was also interesting enough to keep me going, as well as the political climate based on reality, but that's mostly where it ended. I wanted to like the main character and root for her more than I did, but honestly, she sorta just fed the stereotype of reporters only caring about the story and not the human aspect. Even the ending pushed that fact and I felt like she didn't learn anything positive from her experience. The most likeable characters in the whole book were some of her partners and the folks she interviewed along the way, which isn't saying much since they were lower level characters. Good premise here, I just didn't find it executed well enough for me to be all that emotionally invested.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

I really enjoyed the concept of this book but I struggled to get into it. As I read, it was confusing to figure out what genre the book fell under. I think that it was very wacky and didn’t feel very grounded in reality, which can definitely be fun but ultimately isn’t for me. I struggled to fully understand the relationships between characters at first because we were very much dropped into the story at the start. Overall I enjoyed it but it wasn’t a favorite.

Interesting read with a behind the scenes look at television news and what goes on between competing stations when there is a big news story that garners major attention both locally and nationally. Throw in the fact that the victim was a controversial local radio talk show host and let the competition begin. I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

This is a cozy mystery about a TV journalist investigating the murder of Rush Limbaugh.

He's not called Rush Limbaugh, of course; enough of the details are changed that it's a different shape of story. But this is very much a "right-wing blowhard gets poisoned; plucky TV journalist pursues the story and also tries to promote her own career." Estes is definitely getting some mileage out of how satisfying it is to watch the loathsome people who gather around such a horror show snap at each other over the corpse.

In the interest of making the protagonist not too saintly to be real, she comes out a bit the other side, whining about how hard it is to do her job and seething with jealousy for a local rival. Estes's enthusiasm for the Phoenix setting comes through positively, but I didn't actually like her detective as much as I wanted to. I felt she was supposed to come off beleaguered and instead read self-pitying to me, and on the whole I don't really want to spend as much time with loathsome people as this book required me to do.

I thought this was a well written debut novel with an interesting protagonist and an engaging storyline. It's set in the world of investigative reporting, which I enjoyed. The author writes from experience, and that comes through.. The characters were well written, and the mystery unfolded in a realistic way. I was a little put off by the politics mentioned throughout, but not enough to take away from my ability to enjoy the story.

All in all, I enjoyed this book very much and look forward to reading more of this author's works in the future.

4/5 stars.

*** I would like to thank NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and Christina Estes for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This was a fun read for me! This is the kind of book I felt like I needed. I really liked the main character and her drive to figure the story out. Wasn’t shocked or surprised who the killer ended up being. Overall enjoyable and excited to see what other books Christina Estes brings! Thank you NetGalley, Christina Estes and Minotaur Books for this digital copy.

Off the Air is a cozy whodunnit from a debut author and Emmy winning reporter, Christina Estes. The story opens up with the suspicious death of local inflammatory radio host, Larry Lemmon, and Jolene Garcia, the last reporter to have interviewed him while living, will stop at nothing to get the inside scoop.

This book was fun and fascinating to see a backstage look at how reporting is done from an author who knows not only the industry, but the setting. There were many details about Phoenix that can only come from a true local, and I loved the subtle restaurant recommendations throughout. I enjoyed the foreshadowing via Wheel of Fortune and the odd relationship Jolene has with her neighbor. Jolene’s character arc fell flat- she was very one dimensional, and I’d have liked to see some growth as the story progressed. When I saw her back story as a child in foster care, I thought we might see a story arc where she learns about the value in community and how people need people (and how not all people will let you down); however, Jolene’s dogged hyperindependence, while understandable, ultimately holds her back throughout the book. She has very few friends at work and as her obsession with Lemmon’s case grows to a tipping point, she begins to alienate them. Outside of work, she is very reclusive and hardly engages with anyone.

There were some parts of the book that did not add to the plot or serve the story in anyway, and it makes me wonder if the author is setting us up for more Jolene books in the future where we will see some of these extraneous details become the foundation for future books documenting the reporting efforts of Jolene. I think seeing her grow and develop from a young to a seasoned professional reporter would be the basis for a really great series!

I’d like to thank Saint Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

FULL-ON RANT. NOTHING TO DO WITH THE AUTHOR. VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH THE EDITING/PUBLISHING TEAM.

In our current environment where transparency and acceptance of all things are expected, certain things become difficult when those two constructs collide: Like writing an honest review about a gifted-by-the-publisher advanced reader copy book that should never have left the editing room in its current condition.

My transparency: This book was not ready to be published. Shame on the editor(s) and publisher for putting author Estes in this position. Story dumps (2-1/2 pages of unnecessary to the plot information about the 1890’s government run boarding schools that assimilated Native children has absolutely NOTHING to do with who killed media personality Larry Lemmon in Off the Air), pacing (wow, slow down, there is some good stuff in here but the editing team blew it by allowing the excitement of Estes telling her story to overwhelm the reader), and telling vs. showing (please let me see it; don’t tell me every. Single. Thing.).

My acceptance: This is not on the author. Christina Estes obviously knows how to write and she does it well. She has a story, and it’s not a bad plot, it’s got its moments of real fun and going somewhere, but it has been lost by someone’s idea to push this one through too quickly. This. Is. Not. Estes’. Fault. This is on the editor/publisher. There is a huge push in today’s publishing world to lift up diverse authors, be them female, young, of color, other-than-American nationality, race that hasn’t previously had many published books, etc., and I wonder if Estes fell into that ridiculousness where she became a number. If that is the case, again, shame on the publisher/editor. Christina Estes, you deserve better that this.

I can almost guarantee that I will be canceled, banned, never published, ridiculed, called out, run over, lambasted, and otherwise tarred and feathered for this review, but seriously - editor/publisher, you may have ruined Estes’ future chance for readership by pushing this book through so early. Do Better.

Anyone still reading this: Don’t discount Christina Estes’ ability - it’s in there. She can do this writing thing and we as readers need to give her another chance - maybe just with a different editing/publishing team.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur for the ARC. I’m giving this a 2/5 stars because I believe in the author’s ability.

Thank you for a copy of this arc for a review! I enjoyed this book. I found the progression of Jolene’s time at work and the who done it to be great. It wasn’t overly political so I was happy about that. I did feel that some characters and part of the story were rushed or introduced quickly but overall I enjoyed the book.

I had to force myself to finish it and skimmed most of the last third. It felt like the Groundhog’s Day movie where every day was the same: wake up, try to get an exclusive, meet a bunch of roadblocks, end the day disappointed, get more desperate as you repeat again the next day. The mystery wasn’t compelling and there wasn’t enough of a twist at the end. I’d skip this one.

3.5 / 5.0 Stars

This is an excellent first book effort by author Christina Estes. Drawing on her own professional experience as a reporter and personal experience as a foster parent, she has created Jolene Garcia, a news reporter, who deftly guides the readers through the pitfalls and successes of live news reporting. She is tenacious and driven such that she is not always everybody's favorite colleague.

There's a tremendous amount of competition in the news-reporting scene. Jolene gets a cryptic text from her station's assignment editor that a body's been found at a competing station and to get on it post haste. Every station is on hand when she arrives; each of which is trying to scoop the story ahead of their competition. Is it natural causes? An accident? Or is it something more nefarious? Let the competition commence!

Much of the story is about Jolene's efforts to just get a decent break on this story so that she can remain in the game. She is driven to succeed at the expense of others. Folks who genuinely care about her, can't rein her in. The crazy things she'll do for the sake of the story are innumerable. But can she do it? Can she figure out what is going on? Why? and by whom? Only time will tell.

The writing is good even humorous at times. Ms. Estes has a rich knowledge of the reporting industry and the details are spot on. The dialogue is a bit snarkier than I care for but it seems to fit with the nature of the story. The red herrings are numerous and the tension builds steadily to climax and then gently relaxes to a satisfying conclusion. All in all a good cozy mystery.

I am grateful to Minotaur Books for having provided a complimentary uncorrected digital galley of this book through NetGalley. Their generosity, however, has not influenced this review - the words of which are mine alone.


Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: March 26, 2024
No. of Pages: 320
ISBN No.: 978-1250863850

Like a cozy mystery but without a love interest. Fast read with a ton of action.
Jolene makes for a great lead character whose job as a local t.v reporter makes for a fun read as we learn all she has to do to be successful in her chosen field. The story was good, and the ending was fitting.
At times I felt like I was being given too much information, but in the end, I felt like I got the whole picture the author was trying to show the reader.