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DEAD AIR
by Kerri Miller
North Star Press, October 2002
220 pages
$14.95
ISBN: 0878391886


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Cate McCoy is a young, eager, political reporter for a television station in the Twin Cities. She follows leads almost to the ends of the earth-or at least into Mexico. With the newly elected, publicity magnet, Edward Hamm now in the governor's office, she senses she has a vast store of juicy stories at her finger tips. What she doesn't realize is that when somewhat-famous crusading reporter, Millicent Pine, comes to St. Paul to do a profile on the governor, Cate will be swept into a story with wide-ranging deadly dimensions. In fact, Cate herself becomes part of the story, a story she better solve if she wants to remain among the living.

Author Miller's knowledgeable look inside the news gathering reality of modern television adds an interesting dimension to the book. Cate McCoy, protagonist of this tale, isn't really the author, who has a successful career in local television as a political reporter for KARE, Channel 11, but there are certainly strong parallels. Her characters, particularly a semi-competent news director, a thinly disguised governor and the governor's press secretary, the barracuda, provide dimension and rhythm to an otherwise straightforward mystery.

There are some annoyingly abrupt shifts in point of view and a few portentous statements have no payoffs, but these are all relatively minor. Anyone interested in politics, gotcha reporting, and an insider's view of television news gathering in the present tense will enjoy this novel and its satisfying, bang-bang conclusion.

Reviewed by Carl Brookins, May 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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