“Showrunner Ethan Harris had a hit with The Murder Show, a television crime drama that features a private detective who solves cases the police can’t. But after his pitch for the fourth season is rejected by the network, he returns home to Minnesota looking for inspiration. His timing is fortunate — his former classmate Ro Greeman is now a local police officer, and she’s uncovered new information about the devastating hit and run that killed their mutual friend Ricky the summer after high school.”
The Murder Show, Matt Goldman
As a girl in her late twenties, I’ve obviously spent a lot of time in the true crime media genre. And as a reader, I love thrillers with main characters that just insert themselves into investigations. So The Murder Show immediately grabbed my attention. The story follows Ethan, a showrunner for a crime TV show, who has returned to his hometown and finds himself investigating his friend’s death decades earlier.
The dialogue and plotting of this book were quick-paced and snappy, which is aligned with Goldman’s experience as an Emmy Award-winning television writer. The tensions grew between the main characters and in the plot simultaneously, leaving me feeling stressed and obsessed at the end of every chapter.
There’s a lot of crime thrillers with a main character who’s in the media in some way, either as a podcaster, an author, or an investigative journalist. This book fits neatly into this subgenre, and will not leave you disappointed if that’s a writing style you enjoy! A quick PSA for audiobook listeners: there’s only a male narrator, and there’s a LOT of female dialogue, and it got a little confusing for me.
Thanks to Netgalley, Forge Books, and Macmillan Audio for the free advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review!
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