My boss – the owner of Channel 10 News in New York City where I’m the news director and also an on-air star reporter – just invited me to lunch at a fancy restaurant in downtown Manhattan.

The way I figured, there’s three potential reasons he did this:

1) He’s going to give me a raise.
2) He wants to name me Employee of the Month.
3) He has some bad news to tell me.

It turned out to be No. 3. Bad news. He told me he’s firing the executive producer of Channel 10 News, a man who had been my friend, my mentor and the person responsible for my career in TV news. He was being replaced by a rising corporate star named Susan Endicott known for her ruthless, bottom-line tactics and willingness to do anything to get big ratings. I disliked Susan Endicott before I even met her.

“I want you to accept this,” the station owner said to me. “I want you to understand the reason for it. I want you to help Susan Endicott feel welcome here. Are you good with all that, Clare?”

“Hey, you know me. I’m a team player.”
“No, you’re not.”
I sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m not.”
“Let’s try to make this work, huh?”

If you think my work life sounds tumultuous, wait until you check out my personal life. I’ve had a lot of success as a journalist, breaking big stories on air and even winning a Pulitzer Prize as a newspaper reporter before I got into TV. But outside the office, my life has been pretty much of a train wreck. I’ve been married (and divorced) three times and left behind a string of other broken romances along the way. Obviously, my vetting process for the men in my life leaves a lot to be desired

But the one thing I’ve got going for me is the stories. The big news stories I break. That’s what makes me feel alive and feel happy. I had another one now too. During the lunch, I got a text from the Channel 10 newsroom that there’d been a big murder overnight. A female college student found beaten to death near Washington Square Park.

And the victim fit into the category cynically known by some media critics as a Blonde White Single Female crime – when the victim was a pretty young girl, often from a wealthy background, who met a violent fate on the streets of New York City.

This murder victim was blonde and beautiful.
She came from money.
And she was dead.
She fit the category perfectly for a big, sensational crime story at Channel 10 News.
Yes, I know that sounds like a terrible thing to say.
But it’s what I do for a living.

I cover big crime stories, and this looked like it was going to be about as newsworthy a death as we’d had for a long time. And it was just what I needed right now. A big story to cover. A big story always made everything better for me.

It’s News to Me, A Clare Carlson Mystery #5
Genre: Traditional
Release: October 2022
Purchase Link

Dashed dreams: she wanted to run for president one day, now she’s dead at 20

When Riley Hunt—a beautiful, smart, popular student at Easton College in Manhattan—is brutally murdered, it becomes a big story for TV newswoman Clare Carlson.

After days of intense media coverage, a suspect is caught: a troubled Afghanistan war veteran with a history of violent and unstable behavior. The suspect’s mother, however, comes to Clare with new evidence that might prove her son’s innocence.

As Clare digs deeper into the puzzling case, she learns new information: Riley had complained about being stalked in the days before her murder, she was romantically involved with two different men—the son of a top police official and the son of a prominent underworld boss—and she had posted her picture on an escort service’s website offering paid dates with wealthy men.

Soon, Clare becomes convinced that Riley Hunt’s death is more than just a simple murder case—and that more lives, including her own, are now in danger until she uncovers the true story.

It’s News to Me is perfect for fans of J. D. Robb and Karin Slaughter

About the author
R.G. Belsky is an award-winning author of crime fiction and a journalist in New York City. His newest mystery, It’s News To Me, is being published October 4 by Oceanview. It is the fifth in a series featuring Clare Carlson, the news director for a New York City TV station. Belsky has published 20 novels—all set in the New York city media world where he has had a long career as a top editor at the New York Post, New York Daily News, Star magazine and NBC News. He also writes thrillers under the name Dana Perry. And he is a contributing editor for The Big Thrill magazine.

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