BROADCASTS.com

Published: Jan. 5, 2024, 5:30 p.m.

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Welcome to Mysteries to Die For and this Toe Tag.

I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is normally a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you at the heart of mystery. Today is a bonus episode we call a Toe Tag. It is the first chapter from a fresh release in the mystery, crime, and thriller genre.

Today\\u2019s featured release is Broadcast Blues.

TG Wolff Review

Broadcast Blues is an amateur sleuth mystery. Channel 10 News\\u2019s Clare Carlson prayed to the news gods for an explosive lead story and she got it. A car bombing in the middle of New York City killed private investigator Wendy Kyle. Wanting to break the story to stave of the station\\u2019s new owners, Clare starts digging and discovers Kyle was into more than just cheating husbands.

Bottom line: Broadcast Blues is for you if you like brassy female leads, the pressure and pace of local TV news, and a mystery you can sink your teeth into.

Strengths of the story. Clare Carlson is a fully established character who is comfortable in her own skin. She is confident and has a sharp edge that she wields on her executive producer, some witnesses, and the occasional ex-husband. Perhaps those characteristics are the reason she thrived in the industry. In this story, she is dealing with the imminent approach of her 50th birthday, the reality of three failed marriages, and a complicated relationship with the daughter she gave up for adoption. She isn\\u2019t a two-dimensional character but juggles work-life-play like many of us do. It was when she struggled that I most connected with Clare.

The setting of the local TV news brings a sense of urgency to everything Clare does. Often, the element of urgency can feel contrived or artificial but in Broadcast Blues, it\\u2019s a normal part of Clare\\u2019s life. It pushed Clare forward when she had little to go on.

The story has a nice level of complexity. At first, it seems like there is too wide a field of suspects, those being all the unfaithful spouses Kyle exposed. The story settles into a single line of investigation at a pace that, in my opinion, was just right. It wasn\\u2019t too fast, jumping to a conclusion, and it wasn\\u2019t so slow, drawing things out. I especially liked the ending. It wasn\\u2019t predictable, it was exciting, and wrapped up the whodunnit questions.

This is the 6th book in the Clare Carlson Mystery Series and I have not read the previous books. The mystery is stand alone and does not rely on knowledge from prior books. There are some continuing characters and Clare\\u2019s character arc that do bridge across books but Belsky gives us what we need to understand without making you feel like you\\u2019ve been left out.

Where the story fell short of ideal: I did have a challenge with an element of the writing style \\u2013 there were several passages where I lost who was speaking in extended back-and-forth dialog. Consistently, there were only two people speaking, but sometimes there were other people in the room. Each time I lost track, I pulled out of the story to back track and to figure out who was speaking. Other readers may read through the passages without the issues I had.

Standing at the end looking back, I have a few questions. They aren\\u2019t about the heart or the logic of the mystery itself- that is solid. My questions are on one particular detail that pushed the investigation forward. If you tend not to reverse engineer a mystery, then you\\u2019ll enjoy Broadcast Blues for dynamic storytelling that it is.

The Broadcast Blues was released from Oceanview Publishing and is promoted by Partners In Crime Tours and is available from