After reading
the second rip-roaring mystery about sports reporter Kate Green, I would have
known without being told that author Elise Hart Kipness was a former sports
reporter herself. The book is overflowing with the authentic detail available
only to the subject matter expert. Some of the very best parts describe the
pressure of live reporting from a dynamic scene while simultaneously
coordinating with producers and technical staff back at the broadcasting
station. These sections will give readers a new appreciation for live action
reporters, who make what they are doing look easy.
The book
tells two stories, one about Kate Green the budding soccer star who helped
bring an Olympic gold medal home years ago, and the second about an older Kate
Green who moved on from the game and turned her experience into a live network sports
reporting career. The first thread describes the grueling training Olympic
hopefuls and their families endure, and the cutthroat competition among the
players for a few coveted places on the final team.
The second
thread takes place in the present during the Olympics summer games being hosted
in New York, where Kate gets the on-air reporting assignment because the coach
of the U.S. soccer team is one of her former Olympics team mates and Kate’s
management assumes she will be able to capitalize on the relationship to gain
access to the team and exclusive material.
One of the
U.S. soccer players is displaying shockingly poor sportsmanship and creating a
disruptive locker room, and the media’s focus is on her antics until the body
of a former Olympic hopeful from Kate’s playing days is found in the medical
treatment area underneath Madison Square Gardens. Both Kate and the U.S. soccer
team coach knew the victim well at one point in their lives, and naturally the
police assume they had something to do with the death. Not unnaturally Kate
decides to investigate on her own.
Kate’s
father, who had chosen his law enforcement career over his marriage when Kate’s
mother gave him an ultimatum, is active in the investigation and he is Kate’s
source for forensic information. So often in amateur sleuth mysteries the
nonprofessional relies on a police boyfriend, a device that has been overused,
so supplying a parent as an inside source is a refreshing change.
Another good
bit is the incident involving the release of false information. While it was
pulled within the hour, the release was so deliberately sensational that it
spread like wildfire across the Internet and did some damage. Some pointed
comments about the media’s responsibility in stopping misinformation instead of
chasing ratings were completely on target.
I realized
about two-thirds through what the motive for the killing was, which pointed at
an obvious culprit but other readers may well not be as jaded as I am. Even so,
the strength of this very good mystery is in the portrayal of the cutthroat
world of Olympic sports and the similarly vicious ecosphere of network media.
· Publisher: Thomas &
Mercer (September 17, 2024)
· Language: English
· Paperback: 285 pages
· ISBN-10: 1662512686
· ISBN-13: 978-1662512681
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3X7JUqK
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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