Exposé

Sally Harrington #1

by Laura Van Wormer

Book #3 in The Alexandra Waring Chronicles

Book #1 of The Sally Harrington Mysteries

From American Library Association
Lighthearted and amusing, suspenseful and romantic, and told with wit and insight, this is a fast-paced story of a smart young journalist struggling to find her place in the world. Sally Harrington was a magazine writer in Los Angeles before returning to her hometown of Castleford, Connecticut, when her mother became ill with cancer. Now that her mother is well, Sally is beginning to find her small-town life a bit stifling. She dates her high-school sweetheart and writes for the local paper, where one of her primary assignments is working with local conspiracy theorist and UFO fanatic Pete Sabatino. When she stumbles on an opportunity to write a profile of the high-powered TV executive Cassy Cochran for Expectations, a glamorous New York magazine, she jumps at the chance. As Sally attempts to balance her two lives, she finds that the excitement of New York (and her hot new boyfriend) may not be all that she'd hoped for and that life is starting to get interesting back in Castleford. She did, after all, discover a dead body and break the murder story for her paper. As Sally unravels the mystery in her hometown, negotiates high-society in New York, and tries to straighten out her love life, she maintains her enthusiasm and good-natured outlook, which are shared by her appreciative audience. Van Wormer has put together a hip contemporary tale that is sure to be a hit with her fans as well as anyone looking for a pleasurable summer read. -- Catherine Sias

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Chick Lit, Thriller, Mystery Thriller

475 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Laura Van Wormer grew up in Darien, Connecticut, graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and has spent most of her adult life working in publishing. She is the author of eleven previous novels. The Kill Fee is the fifth in the Sally Harrington series, although some of the characters - most notably the group at DBS News - are in her earlier novels Riverside Drive, West End, Any Given Moment and Talk.

Laura divides her time between Manhattan and Meriden, Connecticut.

Reviews

[M.E. Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lighthearted mystery with a dash of romance and suspense. When the offer comes to Sally Harrington to write a piece for Expectations, a high-end tabloid magazines, it seems too good to be true. She came home to small town Castleford, CT to take care of her mother. While she's working for the local paper and going with her high school sweetheart, she seems to be settling in. But that's the problem: she's settling -- and she's bored. So an opportunity to write an expose of Cassy Cochran TV network president and mix with the rich and powerful is a powerful temptation. Temptation and opportunities, decisions and mysteries, some going back 21 years to her father's death.
A light read, good characters, small town journalism vs. big city opportunities. Settling vs. striving toward a goal. An enjoyable read.

[Jeffrey Lyons · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a former broadcast journalist myself, I enjoy books that feature reporters as a lead character. I can relate to them better then some readers I imagine. And the author Laura Van Wormer has it down to a science here. I knew lots of similar news business personalities like the characters she brought forward and I'm not only talking about the lead character.

It is only a once in a lifetime accident that leads Sally to this once in a lifetime publishing opportunity. And at first she is thrilled that one of her stories will appear in a national publication, which is a tabloid akin to the National Enquirer. So she really gets into the research and setting up interviews.

Then the publisher Verity wants dirt on the Media Baroness Sally is profiling and she is not comfortable as an investigative reporter. This is when things take a significant change in the novel. It now becomes more about whether Verity is on the level. The novel is told in the first person so we get into Sally's head and learn all about her angst, nerves, and fears.

In the background, we also have this story about the death of Sally's father in a construction accident decades earlier. But now she is thinking it wasn't everything she was told. So while she's interviewing diva celebrity publishers, she also wants to know if her father's death was more than an accident. I found this to be more interesting than the expose on celebrity bigwigs. In the final quarter of the book, the story shifts to solving this mystery.

I think one of the most annoying parts in this book was how Sally seemingly jumped into bed with Spencer, some guy she met in NYC a few hours earlier, even though she seemed to have a comfortable relationship with Doug. She was like nymphomaniac with Spencer quite frankly.

And then when he confesses that he's doing the woman she is profiling for her once in a lifetime news piece it became hard for me to figure out how she could be so gullible

But that relationship was really a turning point in the story. And after that all hell turned loose. Spencer turned out to be reasonably caring and supportive of her efforts to solve this mystery.

In many respects, this had me guessing until the end since there were multiple story lines happening. The expose. The past death of her father. Her romance with some guy from NYC. So when we slipped from one storyline to another it made some sense.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Rosanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pleasant reomance/thriller story. If I ever have time on my hands and seek diversion I'll for for her other books.

[Skye · Rating 3 out of 5]

The focus was on the drama the main character is involved with/discovers. There is little focus on the murder until the last few chapters.

[Kris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Publishers Weekly
The always smart, self-assured Van Wormer (Talk, 1998, etc.) returns to the publishing scene of Benedict Canyon (1992) and Any Given Moment (1995), as usual stirring in a melodramatic murder subplot to soup up the action. For the past three years, Sally Harrington has been living with her widowed, sick mother back in Castleford, Connecticut, and reporting for the local Herald-American, after having survived a stint in Los Angeles working for an overly hard-breathing
magazine. Now, a conspiracy-theory nut on her paper, Crazy Pete Sabatino, who believes in alien abductions, has a slip of the tongue and mentions that her father was killed by the Masons. Actually, Sally's father, Dodge, died when a newly built gymnasium wall collapsed on him during a flood. Or so it would seem. While driving in the country chasing down a story, medically savvy Sally hears a family in distress, and rescues a man from a panic attack. He's corporate raider Corbett Schroeder. With him is his wife, Verily Rhodes, who edits Vanity Fairstyled Expectations. Verily then hires Sally, for $20,000, to do a profile/expos on Cassy Cochrane, high-flying president of OHS-TV. Will Sally's expos really happen? Or might the real expos turn out to be very much closer to home, with secret-bearing Tony Meyers being murdered? And will Sally's new male friend in Manhattan displace her suitor back in Castleford? Romance, murder, and the inside dope on big-time article writing and TV journalism. A surprising climax awaits the faithful.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this author's books, and I liked this book, though it was somewhat slight. Sally goes back to Connecticut when her mother has cancer, leaving her promising career in LA and taking a job reporting for the local newspaper. She reconnects with her high school boyfriend and is not feeling settled, but is OK overall. Then she is hired to do a profile of a leading woman entertainment mogul for a major magazine. This opens all kinds of doors for Sally, and she becomes good friends with the mogul, falls in love with an editor who may or may not be all he seems. All in all, this is a fairy tale, nice light reading with a very idealized view of central Connecticut.

[Renata R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mistery, gossip and a bit of romance. That's what the life of Sally Harrington is all about. In the battle of finding herself, Sally has to face her love life, career and a ghost in her past.
There are a lot of characters but they are well built making it easy to create a mental picture of each of them. Even though is a long book it doesn't make you rush to finish it. Easy to read and with an interesting plot.

Not a book that will change your life but still enjoyable.
A good book for a lazy afternoon or to let your mind flow on a rainy day.

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

what can I say about this book. Let's put it this way. I ordered this at the beginning of December and it was supposed to take a week to arrive. But it got lost leaving Pittsburgh and didn't arrive until Christmas Eve. Honestly after reading 34 pages I wished this book had stayed lost. Dull, Dull, Dull

[Marguerite Hargreaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good fun, with a mixture of crime and journalism driving the plot. I needed something light and fast, and this was just what the doctor ordered. I see Van Wormer has other novels featuring the same Sally Harrington character; I'll be checking the library for more episodes.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the trashy/crime/love story category--pretty good for that category!

[Margie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would read another by this author.

[Shannon Rozner · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty decent entry in the "trashy mystery novel with a plucky heroine that makes nice summer reading" category.

[Beth Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was okay

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book. It's a bit long but the story gets better as you read through it.