Off the Air

Journalist Estes’s middling debut finds idealistic Phoenix, Ariz., TV reporter Jolene Garcia looking into a high-profile murder. After Jolene produces a series of hit stories about the hazards faced by park rangers, her station superiors move her into a hybrid role where she spends half her week on fluff, and the other half on more heavily reported, consequential work. One such story falls into her lap when Larry Lemmon, a right-wing Rush Limbaugh figure, whom Jolene interviewed a week earlier, turns up dead at the radio station where he recorded his popular talk show. After a little digging, Jolene discovers that Lemmon may have been poisoned after eating cookies dropped off for him by a mysterious woman. Under pressure from her editors to boost ratings and scoop the competition—including Emmy-winning rival reporter Jessica “JJ” Jackson—Jolene struggles to maintain her professionalism while keeping up with the demands of the job. Estes’s background as a reporter lends credibility to Jolene’s investigation, but the plot’s immersion in the politics of contemporary journalism too often clouds, rather than enhances, the core mystery. This fails to make much of a splash. (Mar.)