Blog tours

Blog tour: The Friday Edition by Betta Ferrendelli

The Friday Edition.jpg medium

Title: The Friday Edition

Author: Betta Ferrendelli

Genre: Mystery

Publication date: 6th July 2012

My rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Summary:

“Christmas is coming to Denver, Colorado, but it isn’t only snow that’s falling.

A beautiful young woman, who also happens to be a Truman County Assistant DA, tumbles from her apartment balcony to her death on Christmas Eve.

The incident is ruled a suicide, but the DA’s sister, newspaper reporter Samantha Church, isn’t buying it.

Feverishly Samantha throws herself into finding out what really happened to her sister. She pursues her sister’s killers, maneuvering through a minefield of intrigue deliberately set out to divert her from the truth. She invariably stumbles when confronted by the inescapable specter of a greater enemy: the alcohol dependency that has already cost her the respect of her peers, and, worse, custody of her daughter.

Samantha must summon the courage to face not only a cartel of criminals, but also her own demons. Physically threatened and betrayed, she nearly defeats herself through her own insecurities and fears. She not only must summon the courage to get beyond her own shortcomings, but she must work quickly to beat her nemesis – a reporter at the major metropolitan daily newspaper, who is also in close pursuit of the developing story.

Can Samantha ultimately prevail, write the biggest story of her career, and finally begin to change her life before it is too late?

My review:

The Friday Edition starts daringly as we discover that a woman has died after falling from her apartment’s balcony. The authorities are quick to label the incident as a suicide however Samantha Church, who we later discover is the woman’s sister, is not convinced. This strong beginning had me immediately hooked and I was eager to learn more.

The author successfully manages to develop Samantha as a protagonist, ambitious and hungry for the truth while fighting her own battles. Although I didn’t like her character and found her frustrating at times, it is clear as the story line develops that her close bond with her sister is the main reason behind her drive and is a character trait that I found admirable. My aversion to her personality largely stems from her lack of initiative to reconcile her family life and focus on her health. Throughout the book her relationship with her husband and daughter deteriorated and her alcoholism worsened and at no point did she decide to take action to improve these aspects of her life which I found irritating. The remaining minor characters were not unlikable however did not manage to impress as they often felt insignificant to the plot.

In terms of the story line, the author had some solid ideas and the pace at which these were developed felt right however there were times where the main mystery seemed to go off track. I was keen to follow Samantha to try and expose the murderer however a lot of the story line focused on Samantha’s history which, although makes sense considering this is the first book in the series, I was ultimately not interested in. Some parts felt moving, such as learning about Samantha’s childhood and how it shaped her life, however others I found unnecessary.

I was left with mixed feelings after finishing The Friday Edition. Although the beginning felt engaging the story line wavered and sometimes felt detached. A lack of interest in the characters also didn’t help but I also understand that the author was building the groundwork for this series. The Friday Edition would be a good read for fans of the genre who are hoping to read an uncomplicated murder mystery.

Many thanks to Dave at TheWriteReads for providing an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Friday Edition is out to buy now!

6 Comments

Leave a Reply