QOTD – Do you feel the media crosses a line at times to provide sensationalism to its reporting?
My thoughts: Conley Hawkins is a successful Atlanta newspaper reporter headed for Washington to accept a new position when she learns of this paper’s demise. Having no job and no home to return to, she heads for Florida and her small hometown to visit family and start a job search for a new position with a major newspaper. Her sister runs the Silver Bay Beacon, the town’s newspaper which has been in Conley’s family for generations. Unfortunately, the newspaper is barely viable – that is until Conley starts reporting on the biggest story for decades involving the death of the local congressman and the scandal he leaves behind.
Aside from the news matters, Conley is distressed by the increasing frailty of her Grandmother having not seen her for several years. She learns of the Congressman’s history of cover up from her Grandmother’s cook Winnie. Her married sister has lost a significant amount of weight and appears to be sleeping at the office. A former boyfriend, Skelly becomes someone Conley learns to lean on. Maybe Silver Bay has more to offer her than she remembers?
The book portrays the challenging and, sometimes invasive, work of an investigative reporter. Conley was very good at her job but, in my opinion, would sometimes cross the line between merely reporting the facts and going for the insensitive sensationalism inspired by many reporters today.
I was engaged throughout this book which kept me wanting to read more. The plot was well paced and the characters interesting. There were many moments of humour – I loved the small town flavour added to the Beacon’s public notification of police reports and social affairs. I’d recommend the book to all readers of General Fiction.
This book publishes on May 5, 2020. Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this book in exchange for the honest review provided here.
My rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5.