If you’re reading this, I’m already dead.

How’s that for an attention-grabbing opening line?

But that’s where things stand today with this case I’m working.

I know, I know…it all sounds a bit melodramatic. And I’m not normally the melodramatic type. Really. No, Wendy Kyle is the kind of woman who deals in facts for a living, the kind of woman who doesn’t let emotion cloud her judgment and – maybe most importantly of all – the kind of woman who never blindly puts her trust in anyone.

Especially a man.

PAUSE FOR JOKE:
Q. How do you know if a man is lying to you?
A. His lips are moving.

Okay, that’s actually a lawyer joke. But it works for men too. Because both of them, lawyers and men – or at least most of the men I meet in my job – can be pretty untrustworthy people.

What is my job? I’m a private investigator. But a very unique kind of private investigator. I run Wendy Kyle’s Heartbreaker Investigations, which finds out for women if their husband or boyfriend is cheating on them with someone else. Our ad says: “We Catch Men with Their Pants Down.”

I’m an ex-NYPD cop who got kicked off the force after accusing my commanding officer of sexual assault. I’ve been married – and divorced – twice. I guess I knew marriage wasn’t going to work out for me when I walked into our hotel room on the honeymoon with my last husband and caught him in flagrante delicto with the housekeeper in bed. I assumed it wasn’t part of the hotel’s normal turn down service.

PAUSE FOR SECOND “MEN LIE” JOKE:
Q. How does a man sleep?
A. First he lies on one side, then he lies on the other.

Let me be clear about something though: I’m not some man-hating bitch or anything like that, no matter what you may have heard or think about me. I like men. I love men, or at least I’ve loved a few men in my life. It’s just that I don’t trust them anymore.

So wouldn’t it be ironic – or maybe just a little bit fitting, to look at it completely objectively – if trusting a man this one time was what wound up costing me my own life in the end?

Here’s the bottom line for me, people:

If I succeed in what I’m about to do, I will destroy everything I have written here and everything else relevant about this case I’ve been working on – and all the secrets that I have uncovered.

If not, well…then it is important someone knows the truth about what happened to me.

And that it was the lies – all of the damn lies he told me – that were the death of me.

Broadcast Blues, A Clare Carlson Mystery Book #6
Genre: Traditional Mystery
Release: January 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

Wendy Kyle took secrets to her grave—now, Clare Carlson is digging them up

New York City has no shortage of crime, making for a busy schedule for TV newswoman Clare Carlson. But not all crimes are created equal, and when an explosive planted in a car detonates and kills a woman, Clare knows it’ll be a huge story for her.

But it’s not only about the story—Clare also wants justice for the victim, Wendy Kyle. Wendy had sparked controversy as an NYPD officer, ultimately getting kicked off the force after making sexual harassment allegations and getting into a physical altercation with her boss. Then, she started a private investigations business, catering to women who suspected their husbands of cheating. Undoubtedly, Wendy had angered many people with her work, so the list of her suspected murderers is seemingly endless.

Despite the daunting investigation, Clare dives in headfirst. As she digs deeper, she attracts the attention of many rich and powerful people who will stop at nothing to keep her from breaking the truth about the death of Wendy Kyle—and exposing their personal secrets that Wendy took to her grave.

About the author
R.G. Belsky is an award-winning author of crime fiction and a journalist in New York City. His newest mystery, Broadcast Blues, has just been published by Oceanview. It is the sixth in an award-winning series featuring Clare Carlson, the news director for a New York City TV station. This newest book focuses on the murder of Wendy Kyle, a controversial private investigator who snoops into people’s love lives. Belsky has published more than 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. He is a contributing writer for The Big Thrill magazine and BookTrib.