Laurie Bateman came to the US with her mom as a baby. Having been pushed into child modelling, she thrived and had a career as model and actress, her dainty Vietnamese looks appealing to more than just the advertisers. Now her rich husband Charles Hollister is dead, shot in his own New York apartment, and Laurie is the suspect. BEYOND THE HEADLINES revisits TV journalist Clare Carlson, who digs into the background story in search of the truth.

I like the way the end of the Vietnam War is brought into a modern story, by looking at acts of the previous generation and asking if they were crimes or just what desperate people did to survive. This carefully crafted fourth ‘Clare Carlson Mystery’ also shines a light on the presently relationship-deprived executive director at New York City Channel 10. Her grown daughter and granddaughter could potentially suffer from something Clare can’t change. The generational cycle mirrors the background to the crime.

Author R.G. Belsky, a former newspaper journalist, tells us some of the influences for this timely episode were the media celebrity circus around the OJ Simpson trial, and more recently, the #metoo movement which highlights the wrongs done to women, often by men in positions of influence. He’s also of the age to have served in Vietnam, so some details are drawn from that part of his life.

Clare's best friend, attorney Janet Wood, sets the scene when she tells Clare she is representing Laurie, who is charged with killing her husband Charles Hollister. This is probably a realistic portrayal of how women in these businesses pass information and ask for aid. Something that doesn’t ring true, however, is that Clare is asked to meet with an executive from a California media firm, and she doesn’t Google them or him. A media journalist potentially getting a job offer would want to know more about the firm before the meeting. Today’s journalists use search engines.  

Do we end up feeling sympathy for celebrities? That’s hard to say. Laurie, unlike Charles’s daughter from an earlier marriage, doesn’t do good with her wealth or fame. Clare suspects that this woman who has been acting her whole life plays a part more often than everyone realises. All this doesn’t make her a bad person nor deserving of bad treatment. But Clare can’t quite make up her mind whether Laurie is guilty, and the twists on this theme will keep you reading and entertained right to the end of BEYOND THE HEADLINES. Catch the killer if you can.

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