4 out of 4 stars
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The Broadcast by Liam Fialkov is a mystery thriller with a heavy dose of suspense. It takes us into the lives of six different people, with six different stories that end up connected in the most outstanding way. Sarah, a mother at sixteen, had her child taken away at birth and given to a different family. A traumatic experience that she had not wanted or had control over. Through years of grief, as well as questioning her own life and religion, she met her husband Jonathan. Jonathan was raised in the system, tossed from family to family. The effects of his childhood still haunt him throughout his life, but the love for his wife, and his fascination with graphic design, seems to be what keeps him going. On the other hand, his brother did not have to suffer the same childhood. Walter was adopted immediately by a loving family. He grew up with the love of parents and from that he created a promising life for himself becoming a lead producer at the TBX broadcast network. Michael was also adopted. A young reporter that works at the same station as Walter, he never let his adoption bother him. This was something that both men bonded together on, creating a promising friendship between them. However, Walter was not the only one who took notice of Michael's life or his current employer.
Howard Hensley, a private investigator, and Stewart McPherson, an investigative reporter, take on the role of the antagonists. They believe that there is something seriously wrong with TBX and what Walter is broadcasting. This brings us to the seventh and final perspective, The Broadcast. A TV show produced by Walter and aired on the network TBX. This mysterious show can obtain clips of previous un-witnessed events. With the help if hidden sources, the clips are made available to TBX who then releases their clips on this most anticipated television show, The Broadcast. From unsolved murders to world history, no one knows if the show is authentic or not. The mystery of its origin brings us a suspenseful and thrilling ending that connects all six characters to each other, rather they wanted it to or not.
I chose to rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. Fialkov created a perfect mystery in my opinion. At no point in the story was the ending given away, and the outcome was something I never expected. In most mystery novels, the ending is often predictable. While there are some obvious answers to smaller mysteries Fialkov created in his work, he did a magnificent job at keeping the biggest one hidden until the very end.
The editing of the book is nicely done. While it appears to be professionally edited, I did find two mistakes. However, I chalk this up to be more of a Kindle E-reader formatting error than the actual author himself. Other than the formatting errors, there weren't any errors I took notice of. Fialkov also used great sentence structure and utilized a clever mix of first and third person.
The Broadcast flowed efficiently and at a nice pace. There were no instances in which I felt the story was dragging or expanding too much on insufficient details. Fialkov never lost his destination. He had a specific ending for this book and never strayed from it. Some authors have some difficulty staying consistently on track, but Fialkov does not. He also answered all questions that arose from the mystery. He did not leave any loose ends, and everything that was brought up was explained. His use of using different perspectives was easily understandable as each chapter was clear whose perspective we were reading. Describing their own pasts and presents also added a nice touch to the story.
As for the story itself, it was an attention grabber. Once I started reading I couldn't stop. Each time a question was answered another manifested making it impossible to find a stopping point. The suspense that was created slowly built itself. Once the darker secrets of each individual came to light, it was harder to try and guess what was going to happen next, but I wanted to know. As each individual's story grew, you started to see the darkness that underlined each character, and how everyone of them fought with it. They questioned religion, ethics, vows, promises, good, evil, and most importantly themselves. In the end, the path they chose was paved through every decision they had made from the beginning of this story to the very end.
Overall, this is one of the best mystery thrillers I have taken pleasure in reading. I highly recommend it to everyone who enjoys this genre.
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The Broadcast
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