Reviewer: Connie Payne
Title: Dead Air - 1st in the Talk Radio Mystery series
Author: Mary Kennedy
Publisher: Obsidian
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-22877-2
Release Date: January 2010
Genre/Sub-genre: Cozy Mystery
Year/Setting: Present day, Southern Florida
Overall Rating: 3.75
Sexual Content Rating: None
Language (Profanity/Slang) Content Rating: Mild
Violent Content Rating: Minimal
Mary's Website: www.marykennedy.net
She’s only been in Cypress Grove a few short months; it’s a change of pace from Manhattan and her clinical psychology practice. So far Maggie is enjoying her radio talk show On the Couch with Maggie Walsh. She gets to help all kinds: furverts, scared and helpless wives, oh, and let’s throw in a threatening caller or two.
Though Maggie isn’t aware of it, it’s when her guest, Guru Sanjay, arrives that things really start happening in the seemingly quiet town. She can tell right away that the Guru is nothing but a con artist. He kind of gives her the creeps, but her listening audience loves him. She’ll admit he does have an air of charisma about him, but that’s as far as she’ll go. It’s just lost on her, charisma-thing aside, what people, women see in him. Her roommate, Lark, included.
Perhaps she should have pursued that a bit because it’s only hours later that the Guru is found dead and Lark is the one and only "person of interest" the police are focusing on. Lead detective on the case, Rafe Martino, apparently doesn’t feel there’s a need to look for other "persons of interest". In fact he’s quite rude about the whole thing.
Maggie doesn’t hesitate a second before deciding to start her own investigation. If the police aren’t interested in finding the real murderer, then she’d just hand the murderer to Detective Martino on a silver platter.
Danger and subterfuge swirl around Maggie. Lucky for her she has her mother, Lola, helping her with the case. They uncover a lot of clues with no evident motive. The further they dig, the more people they find who wouldn’t mind seeing Guru Sanjay dead. Surely there’s one clue that will lead to them to murderer. Isn’t there?
What a bumpy ride Maggie and Lola take the reader on! The bizarre sleuthing partnership they formed is quite entertaining. With both women bringing intelligence, sass, and (sometimes shaky) courage to the investigation, the potential suspects in question better watch out.
The supporting cast was integral to the Daring Duo’s investigation; Nick provided enlightening info and much support, Vera Mae was a hoot, a stalwart cheerleader (she reminded me of Flo from the TV show, Alice), Rafe was an easy target to boo and hiss at (he treated Maggie as if she got her degree with box tops from cereal, and I didn’t like it!—Since Maggie got over his rudeness I guess I can, too, though I think she only did so because he’s so sexy), and the suspects were oddly sympathetic characters who each had a valid-to-them reason for wanting Guru dead.
Hopefully everyone who was helpful to Maggie will be back in full force in the next book in the Talk Radio Mystery series. I don’t think she could solve a crime with as much gusto and panache without them; nor do I think the story would be as enjoyable.
Ms. Kennedy has created a winning ensemble and formula. Nicely done.
Connie
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