The Newsmakers by Lis Wiehl
Published by Thomas Nelson Inc on January 19th 2016
Genres: Christian, Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Suspense, Thrillers, Women Sleuths
Pages: 352
TV reporter Erica Sparks has become a superstar overnight. Is it due to her hard work and talent, or is she at the center of a spiraling conspiracy? Erica Sparks is a beautiful and ambitious reporter who has just landed her dream job at Global News Network in New York. And while it was hard to leave Jenny, her cherished eight-year-old daughter, in the custody of her ex-husband, Erica is determined to succeed in the cutthroat world of big-time broadcasting. She can only hope her troubled past won’t come back to sabotage her dreams. Although the wounds from her divorce are still fresh, Erica can’t deny the chemistry between her and her new producer, the handsome and empathic Greg Underwood. But a relationship is the last thing she wants right now. On her very first assignment, Erica inadvertently witnesses—and films—a horrific tragedy, scooping all the other networks. Mere weeks later, another tragedy strikes—again, right in front of Erica and her cameras. Her career skyrockets overnight, but Erica is troubled. Deeply. This can’t just be coincidence. But what is it? Erica will stop at nothing to uncover the truth. But she has to make sure disaster—and her troubled past—don’t catch up with her first.
This book – The Newsmakers by Lis Wiehl – looked pretty interesting right from the start! I liked the cover and I liked the story on the cover so I couldn’t wait to read it.
The protagonist, Erica Sparks, is an obscure television reporter in Maine. She’s just gone through a divorce as well as a rehab treatment for alcohol abuse. She’s trying to get her career back on track, and to do so she lets her ex-husband have custody of their eight year old daughter for a year.
The billionaire founder of Global News Network is Nylan Hastings. He runs the network himself after making billions on a video game that he created. Now as a leader in the news world, he wants to be the best including hiring the best reporter and newscaster he can find and when he sees a trailer of Erica’s reporting, he offers her a position as a field reporter for the network. To Erica, it is the chance of a lifetime.
On her very first assignment, Erica witnesses a tragedy when a ferry crashes into a bulwark. She attempts to save the life of one of the victims and the pictures of her desperately working over this woman plus her own coverage propel her to be covered on every news channel, including CNN. Her reporting of the incident makes her skyrocket in popularity. Then tragedy strikes again when she is doing a live interview with a potential presidential nominee Kay Barrish. During the interview Barrish collapses. Erica valiantly tries to save her with CPR. The footage rivets the world—GNN’s ratings soar and Erica is now a household name.
Something strange comes to Erica’s attention – the possibility that the ferry accident was caused deliberately. Her independent investigation gradually reveals a horrific connection. To tell you any more of this story could possibly be a spoiler so I won’t tell you anything further.
I will say that Erica finds solace in God while in recovery and in the book, she references the serenity prayer a couple of times, but unfortunately, Erica doesn’t turn to God when things get dark and she feels overwhelmed. I was a little disappointed in that, but The Newsmakers is definitely a page turner! Once I got started, I wasn’t able to put the book down until I was finished. It’s kind of a mix between crazy mystery and suspense thriller. At the heart of the whole story is our real-life flawed heroine. The story is about love, loss, family and second chances. She’s a journalist who wants to uncover the truth.
Lis Wiehl is one of the nation’s most prominent trial lawyers and highly regarded commentators. Currently, she is the legal analyst and reporter on the Fox News Channel and Bill O’Reilly’s sparring partner in the weekly “Is It Legal?” segment on The O’Reilly Factor. Prior to that she was O’Reilly’s co-host on the nationally syndicated show The Radio Factor. She is also a Professor of Law at New York Law School.
Prior to joining Fox News Channel in New York City, Wiehl served as a legal analyst and reporter for NBC News and NPR’s All Things Considered. Before that, Wiehl served as a Federal Prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s office.
Wiehl earned her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School and her Master of Arts in Literature from the University of Queensland. Wiehl is also the author of The 51% Minority, which won the 2008 award for Books for a Better Life in the motivational category, and Winning Every Time. She lives in New York.
I received a paperback copy of this book without cost from the publisher through The Fiction Guild, a Thomas Nelson/Zondervan book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
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