This review is considerably overdue. My apologies, Scott.
The Amazon blurb:
When radio morning host Lee Garrett finds a death threat on his control console, he shrugs it off as a prank—until a series of minor harassments turns into a set of undeniable attempts on his life. The suspects are many—he’s made enemies—and the police are strangely uncooperative. The radio career he loved has turned sour, leaving behind a dwindling audience and the wreckage of his marriage. Then the friendship of a newly blind boy and the boy’s attentive (and attractive) teacher offer unexpected hope. Maybe he can make a fresh start. Maybe he can admit that he’s the source of a lot of his own problems. But when the deadliest assault yet claims an innocent victim, Garrett knows he has no choice—he has to find his persecutors and force a confrontation. The extraordinary outcome will test the limits of an ordinary man. In Dead Air career broadcaster Scott Overton creates the disturbing scenario of an ordinary man whose life is threatened by an unknown enemy.
My thoughts:
I wasn’t in love with the character of Lee Garrett. In fact, I didn’t like him much at all, but that’s exactly the way it had to be for Dead Air to be a successful thriller.
Lee Garrett has made enemies over the years, enough to fill a room with the usual suspects, and his wife left him, taking their two children. She’s making a new life for herself while Garrett’s disillusioned and jaded and not a bit depressed. He’s a bit of a schmuck, steeped in a good dose of self-sorrow. Not an attractive package.
Garrett has his redeeming qualities, though. The reasons he’s made all those enemies is because he generally tried to do the right thing and exposed their varied douchebaggery in the process. He’s still in love with his wife, and the friends he has are the dependable kind that come through when the going gets tough.
Then he makes friends with Paul, a boy who recently lost his sight, and Candace, his CNIB counsellor. As the relationship develops, Garrett learns a lot about himself, and how he is the author of his own misery.
He also makes a staunch ally by virtue of an act of kindness. He even wins over the detective assigned to his case despite having been black-listed for ruining another officer’s career.
By the time Garrett exposes that act that haunts his life and underpins many of his poor decisions, I realized I liked Garrett, despite his not inconsiderable flaws. I could even think of him as Lee 🙂
Dead Air is a novel about hard-won redemption and a fascinating character study as well as being a thriller with enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing until the end.
My rating:
4.5 stars out of 5
About the Author:
Scott Overton hosts a radio morning show on Rewind 103.9 in Sudbury, Ontario. As a broadcaster for more than thirty years (twenty-four of them as a morning man), he knows the world he writes about in Dead Air.
To most readers, morning radio is as much a part of their breakfast routine as a hot cup of coffee. On the air, Scott has become a friend to thousands as he entertains and informs. He brings those same instincts to his writing, with clear prose and honest feelings.
His short fiction has been published in On Spec, Neo-opsis, and anthologies such as Tesseracts Sixteen, Canadian Tales of the Fantastic, and In Poe’s Shadow. He’s also a regular contributor of theatre reviews for a local newspaper.
His other passions include scuba diving and a couple of classic cars.
Always Looking Up 