Bob Moyer reviews the sixth in a series of mysteries starring a woman TV news reporter. Don’t worry: He says you don’t have to read the other five before trying this one. But at some point, you might want to try those too.

Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer

BROADCAST BLUES. By R.G. Belsky. Oceanview Publishing. 320 pages. $27.95.

Write what you know.

Author Belsky has whole-heartedly abided by the tenet touted by writing instructors from time immemorial. A print and broadcast veteran, he gives us the broadcast newsroom of a fictional New York TV station, rife with all the politics and pressure thereof. He packs the place with a bad boss, a bottom-line, no-nonsense potential buyer, a traffic reporter who wants his own helicopter and daily prayers to the “news gods” for a great breaking story.

He also, however, writes about, or, rather, in the voice of, something that could be questionable – a woman. He does it without raising any red flags in the era of MeToo complaints, however. Clare Carlson is now appearing in her sixth adventure from the pen of Belsky, and no one has raised any complaints. She is both the star investigative reporter and news director for the station, an inveterate (and witty) journalist with a nose for big cases. Her nose tells her that the murder of private eye Wendy Kyle is a big story. Kyle was investigating some big names with some big money, and they could easily have done her in if she had any dirt on them. Carlson is not convinced when the police claim they caught the killer. She perseveres. Her doggedness leads her down a path littered with red herrings and wrong turns, but a path that ends at a truly surprising resolution, one that will catch the most veteran of mystery readers off guard.

Belsky has written a page-turner of a book with a witty, believable narrator. It’s the sixth in the series, but it stands alone as a good read, and as good a place to start as any.