Live, Local, and Dead

Jaye Jordan has left her radio job in New York City and purchased a small radio station in Vermont. She's her own boss, and her daughter can still spend time with her father - Jaye's ex, who is teaching at a nearby college. Jaye has decided to drop the syndicated programs and go live and local.

However, the fans of a syndicated hatemonger named Edwin Anger are upset and all two of them are protesting. When Jaye grabs one of their muzzleloaders and blows the head off a large snowman, no one expects to find a body entombed in it. And no one expects the body to be Edwin Anger.

Jaye is busy; she's raising her precocious daughter Ryan and coming to terms with her new relationship with her former husband. His cancer diagnosis and eventual show more recovery broke their marriage leaving Jaye wary of any new relationship. Meeting the man who was once a girlhood crush of hers and who is now the governor and dealing with their attraction to each other doesn't make her life simpler.

I really enjoyed this story and getting to know Jaye. I loved her relationship with her daughter. I also loved her strong circle of friends. Her budding new romance was great too.

This cozy mystery had it all. The mystery was engaging. There were touches of humor especially when the moose who lived by her transmitter shack appeared. There was also a nice sprinkling or romance. show less

Decent start to a new series. Jaye is a radio personality, obtaining a small local radio station when she relocates to Vermont after divorce to be closer to her daughter and ex. Current affairs pop up often as Jaye tries to bring the station into the current century. There is a small but vocal group who miss the old catalogue and on-air personalities. Jaye is so frustrated; she blows the head off a snowman in the park. Everyone is surprised when a body is discovered in the shell of the snowman. There's some light romance, good small-town vibe and twisty clues. I look forward to the next one to see where the series heads after this murder is solved.

Before I get into the review I do want to mention that I think the publisher may want to rethink putting Live, Local, and Dead into the cozy mystery genre. While there are aspects to it that fit (small community and a mystery) I think of it more as a light romantic suspense. I can see die-hard cozy fans being disappointed in it and giving it less stars or a bad review because of this.

Now that said, I really enjoyed Nikki Knight’s (aka Kathleen Kalb) first book in the Vermont Radio Mysteries. The characters and small town caring community really shines and we get a dose of politicians and right wing media that I often try to avoid, but Knight was able to write about these topics in a bit of a lighter way while still showing how they show more can affect people. If your political views lean heavily to the right, I could see how this book may not be one that you enjoy.

As another reviewer mentioned, these characters do seem to be the best versions of their imperfect selves and the bad guys do seem almost cartoonish in how evil they are, but for me this fictional view of the characters was what added to the story and helped me to be able to digest the politics.

There is a lot of flirting and romance in the story, and while we don’t get to read what’s happening behind bedroom doors (or in the DJ studio) it is pretty obvious. This is another area where I can see old-fashioned cozy readers taking issue with Live, Local, and Dead, but since I read erotica too, I thought it added a fun layer to the book.

I am looking forward to Knight’s next book in the series and catching up with Jaye and the rest of the wonderful and diverse characters, and learning more about Jewish customs. show less

Live, Local, and Dead by Nikki Knight is the debut of A Vermont Radio Mystery series. I liked the idea of a main character owning a radio station in a small Vermont town. I had a challenging time, though, reading Live, Local, and Dead. The writing style made it difficult to get into the story. The author dived into the story introducing us to a variety of people including the governor who just happened to be walking by when Jaye shot the head off a snowman. There are a number of quirky characters. I felt like I was missing a novella that had introduced us to Jaye and her daughter, Ryan. The characters felt flat since we do not get background information on most of them. The story is told in the first person in a rambling style. The show more sentences all seemed to run together (Jaye starts talking and just keeps going). It is hard to know what Jaye is talking about half the time (I re-read some sections multiple times trying to figure out what was going on). The topics change quickly. Jaye will mention a townsperson by name, and I would wonder who they were (she would just name drop and go on to the next topic). There was a lot of politics in this book. It was too much for a cozy mystery along with the significant amount of foul language. There is at least one bad word per page (I find it offensive and off putting). The mystery has a body being found inside the snowman (clever idea) and it happens to be the radio host that Jaye discontinued using at the station. Jaye becomes a suspect especially since she shot the head off the snowman. I thought Jaye would dive into the investigation, but she seemed more concerned with romance. The crime is solved with little help (I mean very, very little) from our DJ. I wanted to like Live, Local, and Dead but it is not a good fit for me. I did not like all the political insults, the foul language, and the focus on romance instead of the mystery. I also could not relate to the main character (nor did I like her), and I was not a fan of her musical selections. I could not believe Jaye fend candy to a wild moose (I know it is fiction, but she could have fed the moose something normal). Another negative was Jaye shooting the gun in the middle of the town (she picked up the gun not knowing if it was loaded or not). It was just the start of the silliness. This book was all over the place (lacked focus). I even wonder if it fits into the cozy category since Jaye does not investigate. Jaye would rather focus on restarting her life after her divorce (and she has the hots for a certain guy). Live, Local, and Dead was not a good fit for me, but it may be right up your alley. I suggest you obtain a sample to judge for yourself. Live, Local, and Dead is an offbeat cozy mystery with a moose with a sweet tooth, a headless snowman, a cold corpse, a gregarious governor, and a divorced DJ. show less

cancer-survivor, Christian, disc-jockey, divorce, family, fanatics, friendship, governor, hate-crimes, Judaism, multigenerational, murder, murder-investigation, parenting, radio-broadcasting, read, romance, situational-humor, stalker, verbal-humor, Vermont*****

You'd think a story (mainly) about a woman who always puts family first, was divorced because her cancer survivor husband needed to do that, ran a historical radio station, was dangerously targeted by right wingers (and not because she chose to convert to Judaism when she married), and was developing a connection to the governor would be mess of a downer. But YOU'D BE WRONG. In fact, it turned out to be a great whodunit with more red herrings and amazing plot twists, and that show more doesn't even take into account the moose farts! This was great!
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. Thank you! show less

Live, Local, and Dead follows the adventures of Jacqueline ‘Jaye’ Jordan, a radio DJ who moves to Vermont with her daughter after divorcing her husband. Some people like her; some don’t, because another radio show gets canceled after her arrival. When a dead body shows up, things get even more complicated.

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