Live, Local, and Dead

Nikki Knight — 2022

Death waits for snowman in Nikki Knight’s new Vermont-based cozy series, perfect for fans of Connie Archer and Mary Kennedy. In a fit of anger, radio DJ Jaye Jordan blows a snowman’s head off with a Revolutionary War-style musket. But the corpse that tumbles out is all too human. Jaye thought life would be quieter when she left New York City and bought a tiny Vermont radio station. But now, Edwin Anger—the ranting and raving radio talk show host who Jaye recently fired—lies dead in the snow. And the Edwin Anger fans who protested his dismissal are sure she killed him. To clear her name, Jaye must find the real killer, as if she doesn’t have her hands full running the radio station, DJing her all-request love song show, and shuttling tween daughter Ryan to and from school. It doesn’t make matters easier that the governor—Jaye’s old crush—arrived on the scene before the musket smoke cleared. Fortunately, Jaye has allies…if you count the flatulent moose that lives in the transmitter shack, and Neptune, the giant gray cat that lives at the station. If Jaye can turn the tables on the devious killer, she and the governor may get to make some sweet, sweet music together. But if she can’t, she’ll be off the air…permanently.

Reviews

Latitude Tamarind@geographreads

Aug 17, 2022

This is a cozy mystery book that takes place around a radio station. It avoids the standard cozy mystery trope of not having any animal companions for the main character, unless you count the snowman that hides a dead body at the requisite murder of the novel. No? Well, I thought I’d give that a try. It stars a Jewish (by conversion) radio jockey, an ex-husband who had cancer (big overarching trauma), and a hot new guy who I think is a guest radio host. There’s a lot of narration in this book that bogs down the plot, including just some random harassment by a frat boy republican, and that’s all well and good in a print novel, but in an audiobook cozy mystery where I hate the narrator? It’s not happening. Look, this is how it shook out: I absolutely could not finish this book because listening to this narrator is like listening to your least favorite aunt speak. Is it just me? Maybe! Maybe you have a better relationship with your aunts than I do! But I am not on good terms with either of mine. This audiobook receives one star for narrator, three stars for being a book. No comment on any copaganda because I only got to chapter seven before I gave up.