Official Review: Murder at Broadcast Park by Bill Evans

[CaitlynLynch]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Murder at Broadcast Park" by Bill Evans.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Authored by Bill Evans, a former vice-president and general manager of several affiliate television stations, Murder At Broadcast Park follows the staff of a Santa Barbara news station following the shock discovery of their top news anchor dead in his own studio. When a woman is found dead in the news anchor’s bed just hours later - a woman not his wife - the scandal could destroy the entire station.

The narrative follows three major characters and their roles in the investigation; Barry, the head of the newsroom, John, an ambitious but very junior reporter, and Lisa, the station’s general manager.

Although the police are of course investigating the murder, Barry isn’t about to let anyone else scoop him in his own newsroom. He sets his reporters on their own parallel investigation, delving into the private lives and hidden secrets of the station’s staff. Secrets someone has already committed murder to hide.

The inner workings of an affiliate television station are fascinating to read about; Bill Evans is obviously an expert on the topic with years of experience to draw on, and I’d guess many of the characters are thinly veiled sketches of his former co-workers. The murder method is absolutely ingenious - not one I’d ever heard of before - and the descriptions of the police side of the investigation seemed reasonably consistent with reality, at least to this non-American who has nevertheless watched a great many episodes of Law And Order and CSI.

Where the story fell down was in the head-hopping between characters, which happened so frequently I was occasionally confused whose point-of-view I was reading. While the personal lives of many of the newsroom staff was delved into, we discovered very little about the protagonists, which led to a lack of empathy with them. The dialogue was stilted and jumped about too much, and I discovered quite a few spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes which should have been picked up by a competent editor.

These things aside, I was quite enjoying the book and thinking that it probably deserved three stars as I approached the ending and what I assumed would be the grand finale concluding with the unmasking of the murderer, whose identity had been revealed to the reader about halfway through the book.

And then, the book just ended on a cliffhanger. Startled, I checked the chapter index against where I had read up to; even headed over to the book’s page on Amazon to see if there was something wrong with my download. There, I discovered this is apparently the first book of a trilogy, but even in a trilogy each book needs its own complete arc. Ending on a cliffhanger is a cheap tactic to get readers to buy the next book in the series, and not one I care for at all. The reader should want to buy your next book because of how much they enjoyed the one they just read, not because they want to know how the story actually ends.

Those who are interested in the inner workings of a TV news station might find this a good read, but murder mystery fans will only find frustration in the lack of a satisfying conclusion. I recommend the author check out the most popular and enduring authors in the genre; after all, Agatha Christie made sure never to allow her murders to go unsolved. For all of the above reasons, I find that I can rate this book no higher than two out of four stars.

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Murder at Broadcast Park
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Like CaitlynLynch's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Cristina Chifane]

You seem quite upset with the unnecessary cliffhanger in a book where the murderer is already revealed halfway through the finishing line. I really enjoyed reading your review. I remember I have read the sample in this one and I liked the beginning with young John discovering Steve's body sitting at his desk with a rope around his neck. Murder in a news station is a good idea. Maybe others will like being challenged and reading what happens next in the second book in the series. Thanks for your review!

[CaitlynLynch]

You seem quite upset with the unnecessary cliffhanger in a book where the murderer is already revealed halfway through the finishing line.

The problem is at the end of the book the murderer is still on the loose. And the one person who has put all the pieces together just empties it casually out of their mind when they get distracted. I wanted to shake some sense into them.

As I say, I was probably going to give the book 3 stars - there were a few too many proofreading errors and unnecessary PoV changes for 4 - but the ending annoyed me INTENSELY.

[Cristina Chifane]

Where is justice and redemption in that? Where are you, Hercule Poirot, to deliver them a nice lecture and apprehend the culprit? I totally understand you, I was just kidding. I m sorry for the distracting errors, though.

[Sahani Nimandra]

I'm so sorry about what you have to go through. Worst is that when you get a nice book one way or the other it gets spoil. So sad! Thank you for sharing and sorry about your troubles!

[kandscreeley]

I've read books like that before. Where you are intensely enjoying the book. Everything is going along just fine. And then it just stops. With no warning. It really is uncalled for and quite irritating. As you say, there are other ways to get readers attracted to your next book. It's too bad really because it sounds quite interesting. I doubt I'll read it simply for the ending. Thanks, though.

[[Valerie Allen]]

I'm not certain what to think of this review, which seemed mixed with several spoiler alerts.

[Butterflybookworm]

I really enjoyed reading your review. Murder mysteries are one of my favorite types of books. I think I might have to skip this one though. I find books to end on a cliffhanger like you said this one does very annoying as well.

[Biigggg]

The Murder at Broadcast book by Bill Evans, l think that the book is alright, the suspense makes the book to be interesting, l would want to read more on this book

[MsTri]

Having gone to school and obtaining my BA in Communications with an eye on working in the media, I was extremely interested in this book from the moment I saw it. I read the sample, which I adored, but haven't had a chance to finish it due to having books of my own to review, but I didn't find the writing to be stilted, myself. I also don't mind changing POVs. I do thank you for the warning about the cliffhanger, though; in that case, I'll wait until the 2nd book is available and read them both back-to-back. Let's just hope there's no cliffhanger ending the 2nd book, leading to a 3rd, though!

[NL Hartje]

Huh, I was wondering how this book would turn out after reading the sample when it was book of the day. I enjoyed your review! Now I know I can pass on this one

[luchiann]

Nice review, you seem really upset about the cliffhanger, rightly so. Fair warning from the author would have been nice