Monthly Archives: May 2018

YESTERDAY’S NEWS is Today’s Hot New Crime Novel by R. G. Belsky!

Former Journalist turned Crime Novelist, R.G. Belsky, has a New Book out. Happy Release Day to R. G. for YESTERDAY’S NEWS, a Clare Carlson Mystery!

A CLASSIC COLD CASE REOPENED―ALONG WITH PANDORA’S BOX

When eleven-year-old Lucy Devlin disappeared on her way to school more than a decade ago, it became one of the most famous missing child cases in history. The story turned reporter Clare Carlson into a media superstar overnight. Clare broke exclusive after exclusive. She had unprecedented access to the Devlin family as she wrote about the heartbreaking search for their young daughter. She later won a Pulitzer Prize for her extraordinary coverage of the case.

Now Clare once again plunges back into this sensational story. With new evidence, new victims, and new suspects―too many suspects. Everyone from members of a motorcycle gang to a prominent politician running for a US Senate seat seem to have secrets they’re hiding about what really might have happened to Lucy Devlin. But Clare has her own secrets. And, in order to untangle the truth about Lucy Devlin, she must finally confront her own torturous past.

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This is the first novel in a new series, featuring Clare Carlson as the protagonist. If the rest of the series is anything like YESTERDAY’S NEWS, it will be suspenseful and exciting with satisfying twists and turns.

If you haven’t read a novel by R. G. Belsky, this is a great place to start. I highly recommend his work, particularly because R. G. has led a fascinating life and incorporates the wisdom and unique experiences of being a former crime reporter into each story that he crafts. But don’t take my word for it. Look at what critics and other fellow authors have to say.

“Belsky’s Yesterday’s News elicits all parents’ deepest fear―the disappearance of a child. But this intelligent, gripping novel is about so much more: ambition, secrets, and, most shocking of all, truth. Read it.” ―Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times best-selling author of What You Break

“[Yesterday’s News is an] engrossing mystery…Belsky puts Clare’s journalistic integrity to a dramatic test in this gut-wrenching tale.”―Publishers Weekly

“Belsky’s behind-the-headlines story of the story news director Clare Carlson can’t let go has enough twists to keep even the best-read fan on their toes. Yesterday’s News is a thriller about truth, lies―and how much of each we’re willing to live with.” ―Lori Rader-Day, Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author of The Day I Died

“Taut, fast-paced and compelling characters make Yesterday’s News a page-turner.” ―Mary Burton, New York Times best-selling author of The Last Move

“What a terrific book! A complex and compelling non-stop cat-and-mouse chase―and you’re never quite sure which one’s the mouse. Even the savviest of readers will be gasping in awe at Belsky’s impressive story-telling skills.” ―Hank Phillippi Ryan, Agatha, Anthony and Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author

“…Belsky’s extensive news-media background allows him to paint behind the scenes of a TV-news set realistically and with a wry sense of humor.”―Booklist

Below are just some of the interesting things about R. G. and some tidbits about YESTERDAY’S NEWS, along with some pictures of him both as an author and as a reporter. And now, in R. G.’s own words…

I’ve covered a lot of big murder stories as a journalist – Son of Sam, O.J., John Lennon. But I’ve always felt that missing persons cases could be even more tragic. Especially when it involves a missing child. At least in a murder, there’s a sense of closure for the friends and family of the victim. But when someone goes missing – and is never found – there are never any answers. That’s why I decided to write this book about an 11-year-old girl named Lucy Devlin who disappears on her way to school in New York City and is never heard from again. Until my character, TV journalist Clare Carlson, goes digging for the truth years later.

Yesterday’s News (Oceanview – May 1, 2018) is the first in a series featuring Clare Carlson, a former newspaper reporter who is now the news director of Channel 10 News in New York City. A second Clare Carlson book THE CINDERELLA MURDERS will be published by Oceanview in the spring of 2019.

APPEARANCES

There will be a book launch party at Mysterious Bookshop in New York City on May 8.
I will be attending numerous mystery conferences including Maine Crime Wave, Thrillerfest, Deadly Ink, Killer Nashville and Bouchercon.
There will also be appearances at a number of bookstores in cities around the country.
You can check out my website for more details on my schedule. Wwwrgbelsky.com

I write about what I know. My book (like all my earlier mystery books) is set in the world of the New York City media where I worked as a journalist for many years as a top editor at the New York Post, New York Daily News, Star magazine and NBC News. The inspiration for many of the mystery novels I’ve written have come from stories I covered (the “Ripped from the Headlines” technique) and colorful people I worked with at all those places. Whenever anyone has asked me where I got the ideas for my crime novels, I always replied: “Hey, I just go to work every day!”

I’ve done some pretty good things as a journalist, but the thing I became most famous for was something that wasn’t even my idea. The famous New York Post Headless Body in Topless Bar headline. I didn’t write that headline, but I was in the newsroom that day and helped pull together the bizarre story for it. About a holdup man who robbed a topless bar, killed someone, cut off their head and then – for some unfathomable reason – took the head away with him. It became a legendary tabloid headline, and I’ve written about how it was created numerous times since then. So I’ve become linked with that headline as maybe the most notable thing in my journalistic career. Oh, well there are worse things to be known for.

Amazingly enough, I interviewed best-selling author Douglas Preston recently about his new book City of Endless Night with co-author Lincoln Child. That book is about a murderer in New York City who cuts the heads off his victims – and takes them away with him. And yes, he remembered that New York Post headline! Even though he said the idea came from somewhere else. But we had a pretty interesting discussion about that once I told him about my involvement in the Headless Body in Topless Bar headline.

Yesterday’s News is my 11^th mystery novel. Most of them were written while I was working fulltime as a journalist. Lots of people wonder how I could work all day in a newsroom and then sit down for a few hours every day on top of that to write a novel. Hey, writing a novel is fun and relaxing compared to working in a newsroom. My job in the newsroom involved lots of work and stress to make sure the stories – and all the facts in them – were completely accurate. As a mystery novelist, I get to make stuff up. How cool is that!

I have plenty of journalist friends who actually believe that my characters are based on them. I’m sure when this book comes out, there will be women I worked with in newsrooms telling me: “I’m the real Clare Carlson, right?” The answer is no. Clare Carlson, the hard-driving, news-obsessed TV journalist in this new series, is not based on any one person. But she is a compilation of plenty of women I’ve met in newsrooms. Let’s just say I’ve worked with a lot of Clare Carlsons in my time.

My last book before this was Blonde Ice (Atria – 2016), the third in a series featuring Gil Malloy, a New York City newspaper reporter. (Like I said, I tend to write about what I know.). That book was about a cold-blooded woman serial killer – a kind of female Son of Sam – who murdered men on the streets of New York City just for the thrill of it. One interesting footnote on that book: I was able to get an author blurb praising it from from Joe Eszterhas, the legendary Hollywood screenwriter who wrote Basic Instinct – featuring Sharon Stone as a blonde murderer. Joe and I go way back together. We were best friends in college at Ohio University in the ‘60s, working together when he was editor of the daily paper there. Years later, when I was at Star magazine, we covered him as a Hollywood celebrity. So I thought it was really cool to get that praise from him on my book.

I try to write the same kind of books that I like to read. Colorful characters; a fascinating story with lots of twists; and fast-paced, taut writing that keeps a reader turning the pages (this last one is easy for me because of my tabloid background of telling a story quickly and clearly). I had a lot of fun writing Clare Carlson and Yesterday’s News. Hopefully the readers will enjoy it too.

Thanks R. G.! Congratulations and good luck with the new release. Readers, below is a complete book list by this fascinating author. I hope you read and love YESTERDAY’S NEWS!

COMPLETE BOOKLIST

As Dick Belsky…

ONE FOR THE MONEY – Academy Chicago (1985)
SOUTH STREET CONFIDENTIAL – St. Martin’s (1989)
BROADCAST CLUES (Paperback version from Berkley Prime Crime of South Street Confidential) – 1993
LIVE FROM NEW YORK – Berkley Prime Crime (1993)
THE MOURNING SHOW –Berkley Prime Crime (1994)
SUMMERTIME NEWS – Berkley Prime Crime (1995)

As R.G. Belsky….