Beyond the Headlines: A Clare Carlson Mystery

In Belsky’s enjoyable fourth Clare Carlson mystery (after 2020’s The Last Scoop), Clare, the news director of a New York City TV station, scores a tell-all interview with Laurie Bateman, supermodel, actor, and the unhappy, soon-to-be ex-wife of much older business magnate Charles Hollister. The day of the scheduled interview, Laurie finds her husband’s body after returning home to their Fifth Avenue apartment, and the police arrest her for his shooting murder. While hoping to get an interview with Laurie at Riker’s Island, Clare interviews people who know Laurie and discovers that she suffered for years at her husband’s hands. When Clare learns of Laurie’s Vietnam War refugee parents and her father’s death in a hit-and-run accident decades earlier, Clare realizes that a mystery extending back to the final days of the war surrounds Hollister’s murder. Some disturbing information that emerges regarding Clare’s own parents raises the tension. Belsky, a New York City journalist, casts a searing light on a television newsroom and the never-ending pressure to capture headlines and ratings. Readers will hope capable, hard-driven Clare returns soon. (May)