Below the Fold

Clare Carlson Mystery, Book 2

By: R.G. Belsky

Narrated by: Chris Kenworthy

When the murder of a “nobody” triggers an avalanche...

Every human life is supposed to be important. Everyone should matter. But that’s not the case in the cutthroat TV news-rating world where Clare Carlson works. Sex, money, and power sell. Only murder victims of the right social strata are considered worth covering. Not the murder of a “nobody”.

So, when the battered body of a homeless woman named Dora Gayle is found on the streets of New York City, her murder barely gets a mention in the media. But Clare's TV news director, who still has a reporter’s instincts, decides to dig deeper into the seemingly meaningless death.

She uncovers mysterious links between Gayle and a number of wealthy and influential figures. There is a prominent female defense attorney, a scandal-ridden ex-congressman, a decorated NYPD detective, and - most shocking of all - a wealthy media mogul who owns the TV station where Clare works.

Soon, there are more murders, more victims, more questions. As the bodies pile up, Clare realizes that her job, her career, and, maybe, even her life are at stake as she chases after her biggest story ever.

©2019 R.G. Belsky (P)2020 R.G. Belsky

Awesome

This is one of the best stories featuring a journalist that I have read. The plot is realistic and includes engaging characters that are believable and sympathetic. I hope the other books in this series are available in audible soon.

Decent book with some feedback.

I enjoyed this book with a few caveats. The story was a little contrived. I understand reading drama however the book seemed to throw in a few too many twists and red herons taking away from a decent concept.

I started to lose count on the number of twists thinking the book could have ended much earlier however had it ended earlier I might have felt dissatisfied.

The plot needed a little more shoring up as it became a little unbelievable how the protagonist arrived at her conclusions and ultimately solving the mystery (s).

The narrator seemed to be acting out a different genre. She made the characters sound whiney at times, something I might expect from middle grade fiction.

Improving the plot and focusing on a few twists as opposed to throwing everything into this one book and having the actor assume an adult fiction narration would offer 3 suggested improvements.


"This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review."

Clare Carlson new to me

I was gifted this book with the understanding that I would leave an honest review.

Below the Fold is the second book in the Clare Carlson series. I have not read the first book or any other books written by R.G. Belsky before. I also usually like the main character in the books I am reading. Not this time but that didn't stop me from liking the book. The narration was done by Chris Kenworthy and he does a wonderful job. The story has many twists and turns and keeps you on your toes.

Excellence intrigue

This was an excellent book when I favor it talks about women children love and war not the war that so just go to a people war in their lives. I recommend this book at first it seems slow but then when it got going it never stopped and I couldn’t stop listening.

Quite good, but...

It's my first book by R. G. Belsky and I'll have to read or listen to more to find out whether I truly like this author or not...

'Below the Folds' is a book that intrigued and irritated me at the same time, for many reasons. I'll mention the most important ones here only (and there may be some spoilers...)

Pros, then, first: the idea for the plot is good. The murder of a homeless woman, for whom seemingly no-one cares, ignites a chain of events which involves murders, blackmails, family break-ups... And that's the intriguing part. Also, I liked the insight into the workings of a TV station, of how it's decided what we, the viewers, are going to finally see. Character-building is quite OK; they are flawed people, with shortcomings and failings that make them feel real.

What is it, then, that irritated me about the book? Well, I didn't really like any of the characters, especially not the main one. She is egotistic, obsessed with her work and doesn't really care for people (although I assume we are suppossed to think that she does, on account of some of her thoughts and remarks...). And for me this is a huge flaw of any book - I need to feel connected to at least one character in a story, not necessarily the main one; here, I didn't care for anyone, really... But an even bigger fault of the story is the repetition of information. OK, having something said twice is all right, but having it repeated 5, 6 or 7 times (at one point I just stopped counting) in almost exactly the same words...? It's like 'copy and paste' - not helping, neither the writing style nor the story itself... And last but not least; I think the story would benefit a lot if some parts of it were just taken out. While I liked the 'behind the TV screen' scenes, I think tere were too many of them, not really pushing the plot forward, on the contrary, they definitely slowed it and made the story meander in too many directions...

So overall, it's a book with a lot of potential, with quite a few good moments, but also some flaws that for many people will pobably not be flaws at all:) You'll just have to read or listen to it and see for youselves whether you like it or not.

As for the narration, I liked it a lot. Ms Kenworthy brings the book to life in a very nice way. She reads rather fast, but the voices are recognizable and diversified, matching most of the characters well. She's also quite good at acting out dialogues and very good in narrative parts. It's a very-well done interpretation of the book.

DISCLAIMER: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Another great read!

You cannot go wrong with a Belsky book. I thoroughly enjoy this author's books. Always interesting.

5 stars

This is an entertaining cozy mystery with engaging characters and an interesting plot. I look forward to the next book.

Great mystery with some issues (personal)

How could I like a mystery so much and have such extreme dislike for the main character??

I listened to the first book in this series quite some time ago. I liked Clare so the dislike in book two came out of nowhere. She was just so...icky. In the first book, Clare found out that the daughter she gave up for adoption was still alive. She did some stuff to find out where that daughter was, No issues there. HOWEVER, in this book, whatever good she had is gone. I can't detail the reasons since that would give too much of the story away. Suffice to say, I rolled my eyes so hard so many times.

The narrator had a good voice but there wasn't a great amount of variety. There was distinction between male and female but not so much between female and female, or male and male.

I must give major kudos to the author though. This was a really great mystery with twists and turns aplenty. I kept listening through all of the things I did not like though because the story was just that good. And that ending!!!!!