Reviewed by Valerie

TITLE: Radio Static

AUTHOR: Nicky James

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 319 pages

RELEASE DATE: May 31, 2021

BLURB:

Two single dads.

Two head-strong teenagers.

One dead body.

It was supposed to be a vacation to help Nova reconnect with his son. A cabin in the middle of nowhere, nature all around, peace and serenity. What he didn’t expect was to fall for his neighbor in the cabin across the lake. He didn’t expect an erratic and unusual broadcast on a radio station no longer in existence. Nor did he expect a dead body in the water.

Something is happening in the small town of Drysdale.

Mercy likes his mysteries to stay within the pages of his novels. When strange things start to happen at his summer cabin, he and his daughter team up with the man and his son on the other side of the lake to get to the bottom of it. A little amateur sleuthing won’t hurt anyone, right?

Someone out there knows the truth. Who is the man on the radio? What does he know?

Mercy and Nova are determined to find out, but are they willing to risk life and limb for answers? Because someone in Drysdale doesn’t want their secrets revealed

REVIEW:

Divorced Nova is dragging his sixteen-year-old son, Cooper, to his parents’ remote cabin for the month of August. Cooper is bored and miserable until two things catch his attention and promise a better vacation. First, on their drive to the lake, Nova and Cooper hear a weird, staticky radio broadcast; it’s a disjointed rant by a gravelly voiced man claiming he knows the answer to the unsolved, mysterious disappearance of teenaged girl, Vivian, decades before. They later hear another partially coherent transmission, but the problem is, there’s no radio station within range, so where’s the voice on the radio coming from?

The second thing – or person – that piques Cooper’s interest is the bikini clad girl – fourteen-year-old Raelynn – on the dock at the cabin across that lake where she is staying with her single dad, Mercy. Cooper and Rae become involved, and so do the dads. Both men are lonely, having set their needs aside for so long while focusing on their children. There’s strong interest in pursuing their mutual attraction, but when their flirting culminates in a steamy kiss, Mercy pulls back. He decides he needs to concentrate on his daughter and not complicate that with a summer fling.

It’s the mystery of the disappearance, and eventual murders, that drive this book. The mysteries pile up when the kids discover a dead body floating on the edge of the lake. Cooper and Raelynn are terrorized and it results in one heck of a bad argument.

I pegged the killer from early on. Let me rephrase…that could mean something I definitely did not do! I identified the killer early on but was never quite sure. The twists and turns kept it suspenseful and fun, and I even found myself taking mental notes to keep track of the mystery elements. As the story unfolded, the suspect list grew with numerous motives for the crime against the vindictive, bullying Vivian.

It’s more than a summer adventure of sleuthing, though, so it bothered me that Nova and Mercy seem to treat it as such. Something dangerous and nefarious is happening and it involves a cover up by someone who has a lot to hide and a reason to keep snooping tourists quiet. At first, I was able to overlook the obliviousness of parents repeatedly putting themselves and, more importantly, their children in danger, but it didn’t make sense why curiosity repeatedly won out over common sense. These folks should’ve zoomed their butts out of town like a bat out of hell. Would a logical person go question a murder suspect at the hunting store he owns? You know, a place stocked with guns and knives.

On the romance front, Mercy – the more hesitant of the men to get involved – wonders what it would be like to have a life partner. But he long ago made the decision to fully commit to parenting Rae, at the expense of a relationship. Ironically, it’s Rae who makes him see that to be a good parent he needs happiness for himself first.

Details matter to me and Nicky James delivers with her world building. I had a clear vision of the lakeside cabins in the wilderness, the small town of Drysdale, and the local diner with its atrocious coffee. I could imagine Formica tables and sparkly red retro chairs, and smiled when the little kid stacked creamer cups into a tower – I still do that, I hate to admit. It’s little details that elevate the storytelling, and the perfect word choice to paint a picture. Nova said he “peeled myself up of the ground”. That one word conveys everything we need to know about how poorly he slept. I particularly enjoyed reminiscing over the 1980s movies and music; it made my day.

After setting aside my disbelief that the men continued to meddle even as the body count rose, this was a very enjoyable book. The mystery was a welcome change of pace from the mostly contemporary romance I read, and there was a good balance of romance to mystery, although the latter was the stronger element. Overall, this is a fun summertime read.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon