Broadcast Murder

by J.G. Colgan

290 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 2, 2026

Reviews

[Verity W · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is my third Colgan - and I was hoping this would be closer to The Christmas Alibi than Murder on the Bernina Express, but alas it's the latter. The idea is good but more work is needed on several fronts. Firstly, I had the murderer spotted too early, secondly it needs a bit more research and thirdly it needs a better edit. In fact the thirdly could maybe be the firstly because if you had a good editor they'd spot some of the issues and flag them so they could be fixed. Because some of them are small (but careless) - like the white line that's at the bottom of the cover design and some of them are small but annoying like this one which I maybe the only person it annoyed but again: "The lift was old. It had the kind of brass fittings that spoke of a time when even functional objects were expected to be beautiful, and the kind of creaking, groaning movement that spoke of a mechanism that had been in constant use for longer than anyone cared to remember." Why is it annoying? This is a book set in 1937, the lift in question is in Broadcasting House, which opened in ...1932. So if you know, it lifts you out of the story and makes you read everything else more critically. So in summary: promising but needs more work before it's released to the demanding masses (like me!) especially given the British-Library-Crime-Classic-alike cover style.

[Penelope Pitstop · Rating 2 out of 5]

Because of the cover, I borrowed this from Kindle Unlimited thinking it was a Golden Age crime book from the British Library collection. In fact it’s a modern-day tribute/pastiche/whatever.

It’s not unenjoyable - it feels well-researched and the setting is excellent: a closed door murder during a live radio play at BBC Broadcasting House in the late 1930s.

I felt the killer and how it was done was quite easy to spot.

I think another pair of eyes to proofread/copy edit would be a good idea as there are a significant number of mistakes - a couple of repetitions of descriptions of characters, the detective appearing in a room at the crucial moment while also elsewhere, a woman described as “he” a few times (I tried to work out if that was significant but I think it was a mistake). Also none of the characters uses contractions when they speak when of course people said things like “don’t” and “can’t” even all those years ago in 1938… ;-)

But I liked the lead detective. I won’t read more by this author, I don’t think, because of the irritating mistakes.

[Helen Sews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Echoing what others have said, the cover was sneaky and I started reading this thinking it was a British library crime classic. It’s ok, but just ok, bit obvious but maybe not to people without hundreds of detective novels under their belt. My main issue is that it’s far too modern in its attitudes towards the social issues of the day. Ok if you are going to create a detective who is terribly forward thinking then that’s fine, but everyone else in the room in that era is going to be shocked when he says something progressive, they certainly wouldn’t all nod and carry on. The issue there is whitewashing history, women were second class citizens, as were the Irish, being gay was a crime for a very very long time in this country and you can’t be writing like this didn’t exist without pulling your female readership right out of the story to go ‘wait what’.

[Roger L Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Needs a little bit of editing

A solid story, but needs someone to weed out the repetitions and the gender changes for Bella. It’s odd that nobody, not even the author, has read the final version or surely the repetitions and the errors would have been removed. It’s an okay read, despite the above. It’s quite obvious what will be crucial to the denouement, but not who did it. TBH, any one of them could have been made to fit the motive behind the crime.

[Tessa Norris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Broadcast Murder

Excellent pastiche, Inspector Wolf is clever but endearing. Story well set in the period. Intricate plotting. Suitable denouement. Generally enjoyable .

[Jane Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

worth reading!

Well written, good turns of phrase, creates interesting characters using minimum of text so the action moves ahead. Hope to read more Inspector Wolf books.

[Lesly Huxley · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good story and engaging characters

A good story and engaging characters, and some nice turns of phrase, let down by ‘continuity’ errors and inattentive editing/proofing. would otherwise have been 4-4.5 stars.