Dead Air (Talk Radio Mystery, #1) by Mary Kennedy

Maggie is a Psychologist living in Florida. She has a talk radio show,where she helps people with their problems. When a prominent guest Sanjay Ginjii ends up dead, it is clear he was murdered. It does not take long for her friend and roommate Lark to be the number one suspect. Maggie starts to investigate to clear her friend, and solve the mystery.

A fast paced cozy murder mystery with a classic who-done-it style. The suspect list grows as secrets are revealed. Plenty of twists and turns with a splash of humor fit well into the story. Maggie is very likable, as well as her eccentric out spoken mother. Lark is likable too. Overall I found Dead Air enjoyable and feel those who like a a good cozy murder/mystery will enjoy it as well. ( )

I was recommended this cozy series and it looked like the premise might be promising - a psychologist in a small Florida town who does a radio show. I'm always on the lookout for promising cozy series, as I find them enjoyable and a nice break from other genres. But when searching for a new cozy series, it's kind of like trying to find a real gem in a pile of costume jewellery. I've been lucky and found some that I will continue to read other books in the series, but unfortunately, this book wasn't one of them. I found Maggie Walsh quite juvenile and unbelievable. The other characters in the book were just as bad. I gave this book 2 stars because I did manage to finish the book, although I almost put it aside a few times. I wouldn't recommend this book or the series. ( )

Listened/Read for Fun (Audible/Kindle)
Tracking Books Read Review (Short)
Overall Rating: 3.25
Story Rating: 3.50
Character Rating: 3.00

Audio Rating: 3.00 (Not part of the overall rating)

First Thought when Finished: Dead Air had a fun, quirky case but the characters just didn't grab me. They had potential though!

Story Thoughts: Dead Air was the beginning of a new cozy mystery series. I liked Mary Kennedy's writing voice and she wrote an overall super fun mystery. The only thing I really had a hard time with was the main characters. I had a hard time warming up to/liking Maggie, the lead character. She was very smart and capable but a bit to offish for me. I did like her mother and roommate though. Towards the end, I even felt that Maggie had potential.

Enough with what I didn't like, here is what I did like: the mystery. I really enjoyed how quirky the case into the dead New Age guru got. It was fun to go from trailer parks to searching the glades. Some of the side characters (suspects) were completely fun and had me giggling. They gave the case personality and oomph! I am probably going to give book 2 a whirl at some point because the series has serious potential.

Audio Thoughts:

Narrated By Kim McKean / Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins

Kim McKean did a decent job with the narration and I warmed up to her more towards the end of the story. I just don't think her style really fit the main character that well. I would be interested to listen to her read another type of novel (maybe straight fiction/contemporary romance). She had a very pleasant voice and cadence but with cozies you need to have a bit more larger than life personality (voice) to do them properly.

Final Thoughts: Cute cozy that had a solid mystery. ( )

Dead Air - Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat

"Bomb, Bomb! Ohmigod. We'd just gotten a bomb threat. My thoughts scurried through my head like a manic squirrel as I tried to deal with the reality of the threat. Was it a joke? Was it serious? And if there was really a bomb, where was it? Would there be time to evacuate the station? Should I dial 911 or alert the switchboard first? Or the station manager? Was there some procedure I was supposed to follow? I looked over at Vera Mae, and now her eyes were ballooning, her mouth open, frozen in horror like the subject of one of those Edvard Munch paintings. I thought about my mother and my friends and the fact that I was way too young to be blasted to kingdom come. And then an explosion rocked WYME and suddenly I didn't have to think anymore.'

Maggie left her Manhattan practice as a psychologist to take a spot as a radio psychologist in Cypress Grove, Florida. Her show consists mainly of call-ins with an occasional guest speaker. Maggie's upcoming guest, the famous Guru Sanjay Gingii, has become the talk of the town. Guru Sanjay is highly respected by his followers and the anticipation of Cypress Grove being honored with his presence has starting bring the crazies out of the woodworks. And one of these crazies makes a call to station with a bomb threat.

After the air has been cleared and the station employees are allowed back inside the building, Maggie holds her interview with Sanjay. But later when Sanjay turns up dead, the police go straight to Maggie looking for her roommate Lark. It then becomes Maggie along with the help of her mother Lola to clear Lark and find the real killer, of which there are many suspects to choose from.. ex-wife, ex-girlfriends, ex-partners, ex-friends and on and on.

Mary Kennedy has given her readers humor with a touch of murder in her book Dead Air. As I met each character/suspect I assured myself that I had this story "figured out." I knew who murdered Sanjay. Then
the next character came into play and proved me wrong making me believe that this character must be the murderer. This went on throughout the book. Dead Air is a book that will truly hold you in suspense until the end.

Penguin
313 pages
January, 2010 ( )

This is a brand new series by Obsidian set in warm and sunny Florida with a radio psycholigist as the main character. Maggie Walsh recently left a psychologist practice in NY for a radio talk show in Cypress Grove Florida – "On The Couch With Maggie Walsh".

If you are concerned that the main character being a psychologist would make this more of a clinical mystery or psychological thriller, fear not. This is a light beach read, not heavy in the psychology. The author’s favorite bit of psychology seems to be Freud’s “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

Maggie is still settling into her radio talk show position and the station manager lined up a new age personality “Guru Sanjay” for Maggie to interview. No connection there to psychology, but the station manager thought it would help ratings. When the Guru is later found dead with murder a possibility, the police think Maggie’s roommate, Lark, is the prime suspect. Maggie immediately starts poking around and finds there are plenty of people who would have liked to see the Guru dead. From his ex-wife or current business manager, to the woman who claims the Guru destroyed her daughter, or the people who got devastated by the Guru’s real estate scam there is no shortage of people who despised the man. She soon experiences break-ins and threats to her life to get her to stop her sleuthing.

Maggie’s over-the-top aging B-movie actress mother Lola (who steals every scene with her people reading skills, talk radio flair, undercover capabilities – even hypnosis ability for resurrecting memories) joins Maggie in her sleuthing efforts. She is also aided by the local newspaper reporter...

Read the rest of the review here http://mysterysuspence.blogspot.com/2010/01/review-dead-air-by-mary-kennedy.html ( )