Silencing Sam: A Novel (Riley Spartz)
Cartoonish characters and thin prose mar Kramer's third media-savvy thriller featuring Minneapolis, Minn., TV reporter Riley Spartz (afterMissing Mark). When someone shoots to death newspaper gossip columnist Sam Pierce, who recently raised questions in his column about Riley's relationship with a former cop, Nick Garnett, so soon after her husband's death, Riley becomes a murder suspect. Another thorn in Riley's side is showboating Texan Clay Burrel, a fellow Channel 3 investigative journalist, who will stop at nothing to bury the competition, including Riley, with stories about such topics as a decapitated female corpse, Sam's murder, and the hijinks surrounding a wind turbine farm disrupted by explosive protests. Clay's corny, over-the-top John Wayne manner and an unconvincing subplot about Sam's personal life weigh down the action, though Kramer registers some sharp observations regarding the changes rocking the journalism industry.(June)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.