I have been a fan of Lis Wiehl for a while, and have enjoyed many of her books over the past few years. So when I saw her new book, The Newsmakers, I was excited to pick up a copy and read it.
Overall, The Newsmakers was a pretty good story. But it was not up to the same level as other novels by Wiehl. This was not her best book, by far. That said, it is still a great story, and was an enjoyable book to read.
By way of a brief synopsis, and without giving anything away, the book is about Erica Sparks, a new character for Wiehl. Sparks is a TV reporter who has just been hired by an up-and-coming global news network. But when a series of events begin to unfold, she begins to suspect that her career, and her life, may be in jeopardy.
Sparks is a very real character. She is a recovering alcoholic, fresh from a nasty divorce, and Wiehl has done a superb job of making Erica Sparks a character the reader can understand, and even identify with. Along with many other characters in the book, Sparks is one the reader soon comes to love. Other characters, however, feel under-developed, and forced, and could have used some polishing.
Wiehl has chosen to write The Newsmakers in the present tense. For example, instead of writing “she said,” or “she walked,” Wiehl wrote “she says,” and “she walks.” While this is a small thing, it frequently makes the flow of the story seem stilted, and becomes distracting. At one point, I was almost frustrated enough to put the book down because of this. While some books can be written this way, The Newsmakers should not have been.
