Book Review: The Dead Dog Day by Jackie Kabler

The Dead Dog Day by Jackie Kabler
Release Date: 22nd October 2015
Publisher: Accent Press
Buy: Paperback  Kindle
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When your Monday morning begins with a dead dog at four a.m. and a dead boss by ten, you know it’s going to be one of those days. And breakfast TV reporter Cora Baxter has already had the weekend from hell, after the man she was planning a fabulous future with unceremoniously dumped her.

Now Cora’s much-hated boss has been murdered, and Cora is assigned to cover the story for the breakfast show – but as the murder enquiry continues, the trail of suspects leads frighteningly close to home. Why is Cora’s arch-rival, glamorous, bitchy newsreader Alice Lomas, so devastated by their boss’s death? What dark secret is one of her camera crew hiding? And why has her now ex-boyfriend vanished? The race to stop the killer striking again is on …

Monday 18th December turns out to be quite a day for Morning Live reporter Cora Baxter. After Justin, her partner and the man she thought she would spend the rest of her life with, dumps Cora out of the blue the weekend before, there’s no let up at the Morning Live studios either. The death of a dog that was due to appear on the programme throws Cora’s boss, Jeanette Kendrick, into disarray just hours before she is murdered and her body found outside the studios after falling from her office window. However, it soon becomes clear that this was no accident; Jeanette had been pushed. But who would do such a thing? Well, the answer to that is – quite literally anybody. Jeanette was not the most popular of bosses and she had upset numerous employees. There were plenty of people who could be behind Jeanette’s murder and there are motives aplenty.
Despite this the investigation quickly throws up a few major curveballs. There’s also the fact that none of Cora’s co-workers seem to be acting normally. Someone knows more than they are letting on…and then there’s the strange behaviour of Cora’s ex-boyfriend Justin. Can she get to the bottom of what really happened to her boss on that fateful day in December (officially known as ‘The Dead Dog Day’) or will this case prove impossible to get to the bottom of?

I’m not a massive reader of crime, but since I started blogging it’s a genre I have grown to love. Rather than the usual physhcoloigal thrillers that I tend to favour, I was extremely excited about reading The Dead Dog Day. It’s what I like to call a ‘nice’ murder (if there is such a thing…) Basically I mean there’s no violence, gore or copious amounts of blood involved. It’s a story where there is a genuine mystery at the heart that will keep you guessing and frantically turning the pages in an attempt to unmask the murderer. It’s also a story that has a superb range of characters and an added touch of romance. Mix all these ingredients together and hey presto! You have a charming, exciting and extremely satisfying debut novel from Jackie Kabler.

As a die-hard chick lit fan, a book that combines a little chick lit and a little crime is perfect for me. It’s light, entertaining and a real page-turner. I was desperately trying to work out who was behind Jeanette’s murder (and I failed spectacularly!) This is not just because I would make a rubbish detective but also because Jackie Kabler is very clever in her writing. At the end of certain chapters we get to hear a paragraph or two narrated by the killer. This really upped the anti for me as I was desperate to find out who it was, but of course nothing was given away. Not much was given away throughout the whole story actually, and I will hold my hands up to not knowing who the killer was right up until it was revealed. In fact, there’s a few red herrings thrown in which worked on leading me right up the wrong path… The closing chapters of the story were so darn tense, as well. I was holding my breath! I was scared! I was just a big excited ball of frenzy and dying to know who was behind Jeanette’s death.

The other thing that I felt made this story so special was the setting.  Jackie draws extensively on her experiences of working for live TV and it made for such a fascinating and funny read. I felt as though I had had an inside scoop into what being a breakfast TV reporter was like…The early mornings, the whacky stories, the crazy outfits, the things that can go wrong. I absolutely LOVED reading about Cora’s adventure with her camera crew, whether it was wading through flood waters, holding back a serious case of the giggles, or chasing chickens. The team that Cora worked with were fantastic characters who were superbly incorporated into the story. I especially loved Rodney with his crazy sense of style! Cora’s friends Rosie and Nicole were wonderful additions too, each having their own distinct personality that worked so well with the storyline.

The Dead Dog Day is the perfect blend of crime and chick-lit. It manages to achieve being a light story interspersed with darker moments too – a mix which I would imagine is quite difficult to achieve as a writer, but Jackie Kabler pulls it off effortlessly.

Murder, romance, intrigue, humour and mystery. The Dead Dog Day really does have it all.

A huge thank you to Jackie Kabler for sending me a copy of The Dead Dog Day to read and review. ♥

 

Jackie Kabler is a television presenter, reporter and writer.

She spent more than nine years with GMTV as a news correspondent and presenter, during which she covered some of the biggest stories of the decade including President Clinton’s impeachment trial, the Asian tsunami, the Kosovo crisis, famine in Ethiopia, the Athens Olympics, the Soham murders and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Jackie left GMTV to work as a freelance broadcaster in 2008. She became a regular presenter of the ITV national morning news and a reporter across ITN’s news programmes including News at Ten; a reporter and presenter on the BBC’s Midlands Today programme; presenter of property show Selfbuilder TV on Sky’s Information TV channel; and guested as a TV gardening expert. Her work also appeared on the BBC’s News Channel and on CNN.

She also worked as a media trainer and in media simulation – in particular with the armed forces – and produced, wrote and presented corporate and promotional films.

In January 2013 Jackie joined the UK’s biggest shopping channel, QVC, as a presenter.

A former newspaper reporter, she has also worked as a reporter and presenter for Channel TV, ITV West, Central TV, Five News and Setanta Sports News.

In 2014 Jackie signed a three-book deal with publisher Accent Press. Her debut novel, The Dead Dog Day, was released in October 2015.

 

♥ Jackie Kabler ♥  | Website  | Twitter | Goodreads  |

 

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