Dead Air

by Scott Overton

It’s a hard thing to accept that someone wants you dead. It forces you to decide if you have anything worth living for.

Long-time radio “morning man” Lee Garrett is bottoming out. The career he loved has turned sour, leaving behind a dwindling audience and the wreckage of his marriage. When he finds a death threat on his control console, he shrugs it off as a sick prank—until a series of minor harassments turns into a set of undeniable attempts on his life. The suspects are many—he’s made enemies—and the police are strangely uncooperative. But when the deadliest assault yet claims an innocent victim, Garrett knows he has no choice—he has to find his persecutors and force a confrontation. The extraordinary outcome will test the limits of an ordinary man.

315 pages, ebook

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

With a long career as a radio morning show host, Scott’s always had a way with words. But his lifelong devotion to science fiction was destined to lead to a second career as a writer. Although his first novel, the mystery/thriller Dead Air was set in the radio world (and shortlisted for a Northern Lit Award in Ontario, Canada) all of his writing since has taken the reader to even stranger places, including the human bloodstream in his SF novel debut The Primus Labyrinth, a science fiction thriller that readers compare to Michael Crichton and Dan Brown. His most recent novel Naïda chronicles a reluctant hero with an alien being living inside him. Scott strongly believes that science fiction should involve compelling themes and important issues, along with memorable characters.
His short fiction has been published in magazines such as On Spec, AEscifi, Neo-opsis, Penumbra and anthologies including Future Visions 3, Casserole Diplomacy: The On Spec 25th Anniversary Anthology, Canadian Tales of the Fantastic, In Poe’s Shadow, and Tesseracts Sixteen: Parnassus Unbound. Fifteen of his SF/fantasy short stories have been gathered in the collection BEYOND: Stories Beyond Time, Technology, and the Stars. Many more SF novels are on the way. Scott’s distractions from writing include scuba diving, music, and collector cars. He lives with his wife on a private island in Northern Ontario.

Reviews

[Dave Wickenden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scott Overton, a former radio morning person, brings us Dead Air. The story tells of radio morning host, Lee Garrett finds a death threat on his radio console on morning. At first, he thinks it’s a joke. The message refers to the Skins, a local neo-Nazi group, but is the answer that simple? After a few near fatal accidents, Lee realizes that someone is really trying to kill him. He needs to find out why and by whom before it’s too late.
Spine-tingling and suspenseful, Scott shows us the life of a radio host while offering up one exciting mystery that leaves you unable to breathe until the last page.

[Soho_Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Dead Air” is the story of breakfast radio DJ Lee Garrett, who is living a mundane and largely unhappy existence, as whilst he is a reasonably successful DJ, he is divorced and rarely sees his children. As a local celebrity, it is not unusual for him to be occasionally unpopular, but a death threat written in red felt tip pen on his desk one morning is a little more rare. For someone to act upon a death threat is unheard of, but that is the situation Garrett finds himself in.

Over the next few days and weeks, Garrett barely manages to stay alive after nearly freezing to death after his car breaks down in a storm, being attacked by someone on a snow mobile throwing molotov cocktails and having someone place an electrical wire across his front door. Garrett thinks he knows who may be responsible and he sees threats and potential suspects everywhere, but the Police aren’t making much progress and the one slice of happiness Garrett finds in this whole situation is explosively taken away from him.

Too many novels are generic and predictable, but “Dead Air” was different and I enjoyed the story more than many, because it was at least different. In some ways, it reminded me of the old television show “Midnight Caller”, where a radio host helps people and solves crimes. Admittedly, this time around Garrett is only trying to help himself, but it’s a rare approach in that it took a modern and current setting rather than a slightly futuristic one and whilst there was potential disaster in store for Garrett, it wasn’t the apocalypse in store that so much fiction offers.

There were a couple of moments that didn’t quite work. For much of the novel, things moved fairly slowly and Garrett seemed like a fairly normal character. This meant that his attempts to solve his own situation later on and the race and chase he had on a snowmobile seemed a little unrealistic relative to the remainder of the story and took me out of the moment a little. A certain amount of disbelief is always going to be required with fiction, but these parts were anachronistic compared to the lower pace and increased realism in the earlier parts of the novel.

The pacing wasn't always ideal and on occasions it did seem that it dragged a little. The novel may have gone on a little longer than it needed to, but there was something worth exploring along the way, which isn’t always the case and this was by no means the worst story ever committed to print by a long way and I may not have been a fan of the pacing, but I rather enjoyed everything else.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met the author at the Sudbury Market and was intrigued by the dedication and effort he has put into, essentially, self-publishing and promoting his books. As a budding author myself, I recognize how much work this takes and this prompted me to try one of his books. I, typically, don't read science fiction so I opted for "Dead Air" and it turned out to be an excellent choice.

In my opinion, the book is well written and the slow burning beginning really pulls you into all the trials and tribulations the main character is facing in his life. The scenarios are realistic enough that one could see how this could happen and is enough to pull the reader in and keep them invested to the end.

It's interesting that it was set locally in Sudbury and the book was good enough, and left enough loose ends, that I am hoping the author will produce a sequel to further the story of Lee Garrett!

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. Always love a good Sudbury Ontario setting! Thank you!

[Mike Thuot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this well written book. I would read a sequel.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t in love with the character of Lee Garrett. In fact, I didn’t like him much at all, but that’s exactly the way it had to be for Dead Air to be a successful thriller.

Lee Garrett has made enemies over the years, enough to fill a room with the usual suspects, and his wife left him, taking their two children. She’s making a new life for herself while Garrett’s disillusioned and jaded and not a bit depressed. He’s a bit of a schmuck, steeped in a good dose of self-sorrow. Not an attractive package.

Garrett has his redeeming qualities, though. The reasons he’s made all those enemies is because he generally tried to do the right thing and exposed their varied douchebaggery in the process. He’s still in love with his wife, and the friends he has are the dependable kind that come through when the going gets tough.

Then he makes friends with Paul, a boy who recently lost his sight, and Candace, his CNIB counsellor. As the relationship develops, Garrett learns a lot about himself, and how he is the author of his own misery.

He also makes a staunch ally by virtue of an act of kindness. He even wins over the detective assigned to his case despite having been black-listed for ruining another officer’s career.

By the time Garrett exposes that act that haunts his life and underpins many of his poor decisions, I realized I liked Garrett, despite his not inconsiderable flaws. I could even think of him as Lee :)

Dead Air is a novel about hard-won redemption and a fascinating character study as well as being a thriller with enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing until the end.

My rating's actually 4.5 :) Highly recommended!

[Vera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dead Air
Scott Overton says Dead Air’s leading man, Lee Garret, is not based on him or on Scott’s own life, but Garret is a man who works in radio, as does Scott. With his knowledge of the workings of a radio station, Scott Overton offers readers a glimpse of the work of an on-air radio personality, and he makes the experience real.
We can feel the weight of the long hours on Garret’s shoulders through the quiet but powerful writing. We come to understanding some of the demands of his job, because we’ve all heard on air personalities participating in community events.
Dead Air’s Lee Garret is a man we’ve all met. In fact, we could be living next door to him. Garret is of a certain age and he’s at a place in his life where things are not necessarily peaking. Divorced, alienated from his two children, questioning whether he still has what it takes to be a radio personality ought to be enough for any man to deal with, right?
But then, the final straw, someone is trying to kill him. Sound over the top? Not at all!
Scott Overton’s writing is tight and his characters are crafted so well you’ll swear you’ve met one or two of them. Dead Air’s dialogue is strong and genuine. The danger scenes are exciting and believable.
Pick up Dead Air and you’ll find yourself rooting for Garret as he tries to discover who hates his one bad joke so much they are ready to kill him for it.
Apparently radio work is not for sissies

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This first novel by the extremely gifted Scott Overton is a fantastic thriller, filled within insights into the world of morning radio and an unraveling suspense-filled plot that keeps you wanting to repeatedly turn the pages.

Here's the blurb I gave to the publisher and which appears on the back of the book:

"Scott Overton is a storyteller of boundless skill. Dead Air first intrigues readers by drawing them into a side of radio broadcasting most people have never seen, which is interesting enough, but then begins to craftily unravel an intriguing and suspenseful set of circumstances, further drawing readers in and holding them, breathless, to the last page. Overton is a writer to watch."

[Hawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading Scott Overton's "Dead Air". The book begins as an interesting account of the everyday life of an on-air, radio personality, with all the quirky character's and situations unique to that industry. The action builds through many exciting events to a realistic, nail-biting climax.
The main thing that sets this thriller apart from others, is that the characters behave like ordinary people would, and the events and plot are completely beleivable. That lead me to connect more with the characters, and care about what happens to them.
I highly recommend reading it!

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid effort for a first novel, and well written by Scott Overton. (Mention should be made of the cover design by Chris Evans which caught my eye in the bookstore.)
Hopefully, Lee Garrett will spare some time from doing worthy charity events and share another thrilling adventure with readers.........