Vice Report: A Hard-Boiled Mona Breen Mystery

by C.X. Wood

Mona Breen is a typical suburban mom, except her life is in ruins. Her career is in the toilet. Her marriage is dangerous. Even her friends are toxic. The one thing that keeps her going is her crappy job covering true crime for the sleazy clickbait site Vice Report. Everyone in her life—including her boss—thinks she should quit this job. But she can't do it. Then a story forces her to look into the cold, lifeless eyes of a woman who gave up. A crime scene in a sketchy Oakland neighborhood should be a low point in an already terminal career. Instead, the death offers Mona redemption. She meets two detectives on a covert mission, gets caught in a plot involving her favorite hard-boiled mystery writer, and finds—in examining this lonely death—her own purpose. Mona—named by her theater-striken mother for Shakespeare's Desdemona—struggles to shape her own story as she writes the tragedy of this corpse. Is Mona's life also a tragedy? Or could it be a romance, after all? Vice Report is a noir mystery that examines success, friendship, trust, and tragedy. But for Mona, it's just another day at work, and she isn't giving up yet.

247 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 25, 2018

Reviews

[Dennis Baum · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic new take on classic noir detective mysteries! We see the world through the eyes of a strong and smart female reporter who is struggling to make sense of a world that is falling apart around her—both out in the world and inside her own home. But Mona Breen finds answers, and even happiness, where she can.

C. X. Wood does a fantastic job of building an ensemble cast of characters that includes lovable heroes and hateful villains. If you like Joss Whedon shows (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Avengers) then you know how fun and heartbreaking a great ensemble-cast-story can be!

I’m so glad that this is part one of a series, because while Vice Report is super satisfying as one complete book, I can’t wait to revisit these characters to see where they go! And now that I’ve mentioned Whedon and thought about it… this story would make a great TV show. Maybe an Amazon Original since it’s published on Amazon?

C. X. Wood has got it all: great characters, interesting storylines that move along, a little bit of Shakespeare, a significant nod to the noir detective genre, and the collapse of the fourth estate, all in orbit around a smart and determined female reporter!

Full disclosure: I helped proofread the Beta copy for C. X. Wood, so I got to read Vice Report before it was released, and then again when I bought the final version you see here. I loved the Beta version, and this final version is even tighter! Bravo!

[Dianne Peace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drama+

I liked this book more than I thought I would. A slow, steady build of tension involving very solid characters smoothly moving through domestic violence, sexual passion and murder.