Book Review - The Deadline by Jackie Kabler

Amazon UK

Title: The Deadline

Author: Jackie Kabler

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Author supplied review copy

Publisher: Accent Press

Publication Date: 20th October 2016

Rating: 5 Stars

Cora Baxter is back - and this time, she's facing the most important deadline of her career…

When TV reporter Cora Baxter attends the scene of a murder in a London park, she's horrified to discover the victim is someone she knows – and devastated when one of her best friends is charged with the crime. Suddenly the fun-filled life of Cora and her eccentric camera crew takes a darker turn. Cora is convinced that her friend is innocent, but with seemingly solid evidence, the police investigation team – reluctantly led by Cora's boyfriend DCI Adam Bradberry – believe the case is closed. With a trail of clues that leads all the way to New York, can Cora find out the truth before the trial begins – or is it already too late?

The Deadline is the second in the hugely popular Cora Baxter Mysteries series by acclaimed broadcaster Jackie Kabler.

The Deadline is a fabulous mix between a mystery with a very strong lead female character, who won't take know for an answer and is utterly convinced by her best friends innocence, and a story with some brilliantly timed moments of comic relief. 

With regards the comedy, there were moments I almost burst out laughing on my commute, in public, as the scene had tickled me so much. Most of the best humour involved Cora making slight gaffs while on camera, as well as one great typo in an email to a hotel, by one of her colleagues, and then there are some great malapropisms! 

The question this book asks, is would you stand by your best friend, and her pleading her innocence, when all the evidence puts her at the scene of the crime with potential motive and evidence. Well Cora Baxter is loyal to the end and sets herself a deadline to prove her friend's innocence, with the help of a group of their friends. She struggles with the fact the police think its an open and shut case, complete with her boyfriend being in charge of the police investigation. 

I don't think it matters what outlandish thing you think may have happened as you read, I can assure you that unless you are a master at working out fictional mysteries, this will shock you. I did have a complete OMG moment, as I hadn't seen something coming. 

This is the second book in the Cora Baxter mystery series, and it can definitely be read as a standalone, although the first was excellent too. I say this because there is a year between the books, and I don't have full recollection but didn't feel lost at all, so sure people that haven't read The Dead Dog Day wouldn't have a problem either. 

The Deadline is a fantastic second book, from author Jackie Kabler, and it kept me reading longer than my lunch break allowed, and had me wanting to get back to the book all afternoon, which just shows how much it was playing on my mind. 

If you like humour and like your crime and mysteries to not be too gruesome and hardcore then this is definitely a book to be read. 

Thank you to Jackie Kabler for this review copy. This was my honest opinion. 

Book Review - The Dead Dog Day by Jackie Kabler - Blog Tour

Amazon UK

Title: The Dead Dog Day - A Cora Baxter Mystery

Author: Jackie Kabler

Format reviewed: Paperback

Source: Author supplied reivew copy

Publisher: Accent Press

Publication Date: 22nd October 2015

Rating: 4 Stars

When your Monday morning begins with a dead dog and ends with a dead boss, you know it’s going to be one of those days. And breakfast TV reporter Cora Baxter has already had the weekend from hell, after the man she’d planned a fabulous future with unceremoniously dumped her. 

Now Cora’s much-hated boss has been murdered – the list of suspects isn’t exactly short, but as the enquiry continues the trail leads frighteningly close to home. Why is Cora’s rival, glamorous, bitchy newsreader Alice Lomas, so devastated by their boss’s death? What dark secrets are Cora’s camera crew hiding? And why has her now ex-boyfriend vanished? 

The race to stop the killer striking again is on…

The Dead Dog Day is an entertaining book, that became compulsive, unputdownable reading as it progressed. 

Cora is a breakfast TV reporter, who travels up and down the country reporting on anything from the serious to the ridiculous. She was at the main studios on the fateful morning, where to start with one of the guests, a dog, died before it was at the studio. Jeanette the boss tried to insist they just continue with the dead dog on air (in a series of conversations that sets the tone for the humour that is present throughout the book). Shortly afterwards Jeanette is found dead, murdered to be precise. 

Occasionally towards the ends of chapters there would be an aside from the murderer although I can't imagine who would have guessed who it is, and especially the motivation, until it was revealed. At least I had no idea. 

Various chapters were either focusing on Cora and her life, Benjamin her new boyfriend, and Adam the detective running the murder investigation (who Cora may also fancy). 

Work on the case is very slow, and soon questions are asked over various of Cora's colleagues who are acting more oddly than before. 

However it wasn't necessarily the mystery aspect that gripped me from the start. It was the indepth details of Cora's job, and the sheer range of stories she was expected to report from. It was a regular occurrence for her to have to be a ridiculous O'Clock, to travel 3+ hours by car, sometimes just in search of a specific weather condition, and then be ready to be live on air during the broadcast. 

I believe this must be where Jackie Kabler's TV knowledge comes in, and everything about the outside broadcast teams sounds very feasible and realistic, and you really had a good idea about the circumstances these teams work in. 

There were efforts to step up the tension, and as they were introduced, I think it was then, that I started wanting to read more and more of this story, to see the final outcomes. 

I am really hoping the Cora is going to be a recurring character of Jackie's, as you get such a great feel for her various sets of friends and colleagues, I can imagine this being a fantastic series. 

As it is I found it to be a very entertaining, funny at times, and definitely gripping story, that I loved reading.  An excellent debut novel, and a fabulous start to Jackie's writing career. 

Thank you so much to Jackie Kabler for offering me a review copy. This was my honest review.