#1530. Killer Story by Matt Whitten

Petra Kovach. 1st generation immigrant whose parents came over from somewhere in eastern Europe. They settled in eastern LA. Here grandfather was killed accidentally in a drive-by shooting when she was young. At around 8yo, she managed to the case reopened with an impassioned plea in a letter to the editor of the LA Times. While getting the case reopened, the killer was never identified. At this tender age, she decided that journalism would be her future.

As a teenager, she was a camp counselor and developed a close friendship with Olivia Johnson (Livvy) that they maintained after that summer. One connection is that both lost important people in their lives. Petra's grandfather and Livvy's mother. Petra goes on to UCLA and starts her career in print journalism. Livvy eventually enrolls at Harvard where she is a oddball. An unapologetic conservative amongst the liberal majority that inhabits Harvard. Livvy's stepfather works in the Swedish consulate in Boston and has an older brother, Eric, also in Boston area. As a freshman, Livvy dates the star football player, has a fling with a professor, and ends up being the victim of a vicious attack in her dorm room. The prof is arrested, tried and found not guilty. He's dumped by Harvard and the public hasn't forgotten about the killer professor. This happens 2yrs prior to the opening of the book.

Petra's career path has been bumpy, but she hasn't forgotten about Livvy and is desperate to track down the killer. Petra's been fired from two middling newspapers and she is trying it again at a second tier paper in Boston. And that ain't going well either. As the book opens, Petra's job appears to the on cutting board due to budget cuts. But Petra uses Livvy's story as a means to extend her stay with the paper and her editor agrees to let her put her efforts into the case. Petra suggests a podcast to accompany her newspaper reporting.

And here's where things get interesting. She has a competitor at the paper, Natalie, whom she despises. Her boyfriend (a tech startup whiz) who is sort of her moral compass. In the process of her 'pursuit of justice'  she manages to . . .  to reveal any or everything she does, or pisses off, or is entirely illegal would spoil the story. Let's just say that journalistic ethics takes a back seat to the pursuit of (aka: obsession with) this cold case by opening doors that needn't have been even touched and damaging the lives of anyone in her way. All in the name of getting content out on her podcast. The popularity of the podcast explodes from being a local story all the way to CNN.

I have to say that there were multiple times that I said to myself, "Good Lord. Just quit. Move on to the next book." Because I didn't like Petra. She's conniving, manipulative, cloying, annoying and obsessed with the case and the sudden popularity of her podcast; damn anyone who gets in her way. But I stuck it out against my better wishes. Yeah, we find out who actually killed Livvy. That's always important in any attempt at reviving a cold case, but that's almost secondary. More importantly, we find out the consequences of Petra's actions to herself and to the people she stepped on all in pursuit of the almighty click count. 

After finishing the book, I thought my review wouldn't be all that favorable. Then I started thinking that maybe that was the author's point. To present a main character so utterly devoid of ethics that the reader has no choice but to despise her. If that was the point, then Whitten was successful. As I was reading, I started wondering if Whitten was setting us up for a new character series to which I would've said, 'Nope. No chance of reading a Petra Kovach #2.' Once finished, I realized #2 isn't gonna happen. 

I hope.

I like to check up on the author. Whitten is a TV writer for such shows as House, Law & Order, CSI: Miami, JAG, The Glades, Homicide, Judging Amy, and more. His works have been nominated for Emmy and Edgar awards. One of his past books (The Necklace) is in production by Hollywood. The guy can write and weave a compelling story. Methinks getting us to despise Petra was his intent right from the start. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Oceanview Publishing for making an advance copy available. Regular readers will know that I'm an unapologetic supporter of the Oceanview Publishing. While reading the book, I was thinking that this might be the first hiccup for Oceanview. But the further I get from the book, the most I think that the author was skillfully playing with us with his portrayal of Petra. Even so, I still don't like Petra Kovach.

ECD