Prime Time
A Charlotte McNally Mystery
Hank Phillippi Ryan
Harlequin Books (Mass Market Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-373-88135-5 (0373881355)
ISBN-13: 978-0-373-88135-2 (9780373881352)
Publication Date: June 2007
List Price: $5.50
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Could an innocent e-mail offer really result in murder,
mayhem and a multimillion-dollar fraud ring? The last person to ask is
dead but that won't keep Charlotte McNally from poking around. Face it:
in the cutthroat world of television journalism, this seasoned reporter
knows that she'd better pull out all the stops or kiss her cushy job
(and that means her life) goodbye.
But all too soon her investigation leads her straight to Josh Gelston,
who is a little too a lot too handsome. Could she trust a word he said?
Charlie might have a nose for news, but men are a whole other story.
Which means she is putting her job, life and heart on the line
…
Review: Boston television reporter Hank
Phillippi Ryan introduces Charlotte "Charlie" McNally, a character not
unlike herself, in Prime
Time, a wonderfully absorbing mystery.
It all started with a couple of spam e-mail messages from someone she
did not know. Charlie ignored them, promptly deleting them. A few days
later, however, a local newspaper headlined an article about a
whistle-blower revealing a pending lawsuit involving a very large sum
of money being stolen by officers of a pharmaceutical company. The
article goes on to say that an accountant was found dead in an
automobile accident – or was it suicide? Charlie recognized
the
name of the company and the accountant. She remembered seeing the
accountant’s name, Bradley Forman, somewhere. Where was it?
Was
he the person who had sent her the spam e-mails? Enlisting the aid of
her producer, Franklin, they hack her computer to locate the deleted
messages. They still don't make any sense, but reporter that she is,
Charlie sees a story. After all, television's November sweeps are not
too far away and the clock is ticking.
Prime Time
is a
fast-paced, thoroughly enjoyable, well written and plotted mystery and
Charlie McNally is an appealing lead character. The story she and
Franklin pursue lead them to deciphering a code in the message, but not
before another man is killed (another automobile "accident"?) and the
life of a third threatened. The reader will be as determined as Charlie
to unravel this mystery and will be hard pressed to put this book down
before she does.
Another character worth mentioning is Charlie's immediate superior at
the station, Angela. At half Charlie's age, Angela clutches a clipboard
and carries a big stick. There's a lot of humor in witnessing the
interaction between the award-winning reporter with years of experience
and the young producer whose primary concern is ratings.
Prime Time
is a terrific
debut to this series; a sequel is eagerly awaited. And as an
endnote, one can't help wonder if Ryan's life as a reporter is nearly
as exciting as Charlie's!
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Prime Time and to Book Trends for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
Mysteries in this series ...
Prime Time
Harlequin Books (Mass market paperback), June 2007
ISBN-10: 0-373-88135-5 (0373881355)
ISBN-13: 978-0-373-88135-2 (9780373881352)
Face Time
Harlequin Books (Mass market paperback), October 2007
ISBN-10: 0-373-88143-6 (0373881436)
ISBN-13: 978-0-373-88143-7 (9780373881437)
Omnimystery keywords for Prime Time ...
Location(s) referenced: Boston.