Death of a DJ

Cat Austen #1

by Jane Rubino

The murder of a controversial shock jock leads reporter-turned-detective Cat Austen on a search for a killer in this witty mystery from an exciting new author.

"Rubino's warm and feisty Cat...shines in this fast-moving first novel." --Publishers WeeklyFans of mysteries featuring female sleuths will delight in Jane Rubino's down-to-earth. New lersey protagonist Cat Austen.Featured in Deadline mystery newsletter.

Genres: Mystery

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Jane Rubino is a graduate of New York University with a BA in Dramatic Literature, Theatre History, and Cinema. She has been a stringer, feature writer, and film columnist and is author of a contemporary mystery series set at the New Jersey shore and featuring entertainment reporter Cat Fortunati Austen and Sherlock Holmes-quoting cop Lt. Victor Cardenas. Jane and her husband live in New Jersey, 'down the shore'. She is a mother of three, a fan of silent and classic films, and a serious reader of Jane Austen and the Sherlock Holmes canon.

Reviews

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just reread this entire too-short (5 novels and a novella) series for the 4th or 5th time. It is a huge injustice that the Cat Austen/Victor Cardenas mysteries didn't hit it big; this is a fun, thoughtful, tightly plotted series, with a large (but not overwhelmingly large) cast of characters who are ALL realistic, well-drawn, likeable (or hateable), and consistent, yet who develop in unexpected ways. The various ways their relationships/interactions develop are also consistent, interesting, and compelling. AND, the story lines are magnificent; Rubino is a master of the completely jaw-dropping (yet completely fair!) plot twist. It was no idle vanity that she titled one of the later novels Plot Twist, nor that that novel was basically a send-up of the first one, Death of a DJ, in which our protagonist journalist/mom/widow/her-own-woman-and-yet-youngest-daughter-with-all-that-baggage Cat, in reluctant search of a little feature story, becomes witness to the murder of a shock jock (the creep is shot, collapses into her, and dies). Starts with a bang and just gets better. I just can't accept that this series fizzled out for lack of a publisher (the last book is SO ASTONISHING). Seek them out via your favorite used-book purveyor. If they are still in your library, check them out and keep them in circulation and READ THEM. Just do.

[Harley Strouts · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an ok book. Started off a bit slow, but finished with a bang.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: the murder of a controversial shock jock leads reporter-turned-detective Cat Austen on a search for a killer.