Shlian, Deborah; Reid, Linda: Dead Air

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Dead Air, the first book in what will apparently be a  new series, features Sammy Greene as a junior communications major at Ellsford University in Vermont. Sammy hosts a call-in show on the campus radio station, and in that capacity she finds herself digging up various skeletons and generally making herself unpopular with the school's administration and with the campus police. In this outing she's looking into a rash of suicides on campus. The tragedies, once she starts digging, appear suspicious to Sammy, and she winds up uncovering some unpleasant goings-on at the University's state-of-the-art science building.

Sammy is a tenacious journalist who's given to peppering her conversation with Yiddishisms. Both of these facets of her character annoy me, in both cases because they just don't ring true. Sammy was raised by her grandmother in New York City after the deaths of her parents, which is supposed to explain why she sometimes sounds like somebody's grandmother herself, but the expressions she uses just don't sound right coming from the mouth of a tough-talking twenty-ish coed. As for her tenacity and commitment to journalism, I simply can't believe that a college junior would be as devoted to her journalism "career" as Sammy is. Even if a college student wanted to commit themselves so thoroughly to their avocation, they wouldn't be able to. Students tend to have other obligations and interests. But while courses and exams are sometimes alluded to in Dead Air, there's virtually no indication that Sammy ever does any school work: she devotes herself completely to her work for the radio station and her amateur sleuthing. Nor does Sammy act her age. How many 19- or 20-year old college students would travel out of state to interview the president of an international corporation, or impersonate someone to break into a highly-secure building and look for clues? This series would work better for me if Sammy Greene weren't a student herself. Make her a former student who's stayed in town to work at the radio station and I'd find her a much more believable character.

Comments

[JJ Moore]

1.

I read this book and found Sammy Green very fun. My roommate in college was an RTVF major, and spent all his spare time working at the campus station. He'd crash on one of their couches and study for his exams. Exams--not fun. I loved Sammy's drive and passion. Couldn't wait to see what happened--and if she'd make it out alive. Thumbs up.