Review
"David Brewerton's first novel keeps you wanting to know more... Along the way he conjures up an all too authentic picture of the competitiveness and casual cruelty, not to mention the sheer grungy tackiness, of newspaper newsrooms. His characters - the louche news editor, the eternally absent big-name columnist... remain familiar however much the technology changes." - Amazon.co.uk"The plot is a page-turner in itself, yet it is Brewerton's newsroom characters who steal the show." - Amazon.co.uk"A revealing and honest insight into the world of the printed media ... an investigative thriller with a strong, credible plot, told at a good pace and with a lot of fascinating detail." - www.materialwitness.typepad.com
Product Description
Even after two years in London Cassandra Brown failed to get even one story on to the Posts' front page. But when a millionaire friend of the Prime Minister goes missing, she seizes the chance. Day by day she writes revealing stories about the missing tycoon. Two weeks later, his body is found floating in the Mediterranean Sea.
From the Author
The origins of this book lie in a story I covered, as a reporter for a national newspaper, several years ago. An economist working for a science-based company had gone missing following an industry conference.
What followed was weeks of speculation about his whereabouts, until he was found, dead, many miles from where he disappeared. The discovery and eventual identification of his body prompted yet more speculation. He was a spy. He was mistaken for a spy. He was suddenly described as a "top scientist". He was involved in a drugs racket. He was mistaken for a criminal, etc. None of these stories, so far as I am aware, was true.
On some days the public relations people involved were getting in excess of a hundred media calls from reporters, like me, anxious for any snippet, however tiny, to take the story forward.
This prompted me to try to show, through fiction, how a newspaper reporter develops a story, making bricks with the tiniest of straws. Reporters don't always believe the stories they are required to write, but stories sell newspapers and the British newspaper industry is the most competitive in the world.
What followed was weeks of speculation about his whereabouts, until he was found, dead, many miles from where he disappeared. The discovery and eventual identification of his body prompted yet more speculation. He was a spy. He was mistaken for a spy. He was suddenly described as a "top scientist". He was involved in a drugs racket. He was mistaken for a criminal, etc. None of these stories, so far as I am aware, was true.
On some days the public relations people involved were getting in excess of a hundred media calls from reporters, like me, anxious for any snippet, however tiny, to take the story forward.
This prompted me to try to show, through fiction, how a newspaper reporter develops a story, making bricks with the tiniest of straws. Reporters don't always believe the stories they are required to write, but stories sell newspapers and the British newspaper industry is the most competitive in the world.
