Radio Activity

Publishers Weekly

In five previous novels that stretch back from 2003's Heart Seizure to 1998's Pest Control, Fitzhugh has proven that he can feed off the bottom of American culture with the best of them. His latest social entertainment passing as a mystery is set in the creepy, cheesy but also strangely touching world of FM rock radio, as veteran disc jockey Rick Shannon leaves Bismarck, N.Dak.-fired in a housecleaning by a new corporate octopus owner called Clean Signal-for a job as the night man on WAOR in McRae, Miss. He arrives to find that station owner Clay Stubblefield, a former college football star of local note, has changed the original offer. WAOR's program director, Captain Jack Carter, has just disappeared, so Stubblefield offers Rick that job-at a salary to be worked out if Shannon can ever pin him down. Also, the promised spacious apartment near the studio for $300 a month turns out to be a shabby trailer home where the missing employee used to live. Shannon, with no place better to go, accepts both offers, and then decides to find out why Captain Jack (who turns up dead) hid some sexually explicit audiotapes among his vast collection. The mystery parts move along briskly, but what really gives the book its vitality is the obvious love that Shannon (and presumably Fitzhugh) have for classic rock music of virtually every persuasion. 5-city author tour. (Apr. 1) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Fitzhugh (Heart Seizure, 2003, etc.) draws on his experience as a 1970s disc jockey for this likable suspenser that's also a serious celebration of the glory days of rock. Rick Shannon, a rock deejay, has just been laid off by his Bismarck, North Dakota, station after an ownership change-and, at middle-age, Rick wonders whether he's got a future in a radio business characterized by standardized playlists and corporate encroachment (familiar complaints, but they bear repeating). Still, beggars can't be choosers, and he accepts an offer from a small station in McRae, Mississippi, only to find that general manager Clay Stubblefield, a slippery good ol' boy, has pulled a bait-and-switch: the new gig is program director, but Rick, no pushover, insists on keeping the late evening show he was promised. He's replacing the legendary "Captain" Jack Carter and living in his trailer in the woods. But how come the Captain disappeared without taking his fabulous record collection (an opening teaser shows him being shot and buried)? Rick decides to play sleuth, helped by a tape the Captain had made of Clay bragging about sexual indiscretions and hinting at felonies. Was Jack, a notorious coke user, blackmailing people named on the tape? Presenting himself as a p.i., Rick tracks down a couple of Clay's conquests and learns of arson, insurance fraud, and a second missing person. He also has a predictable fling with Traci, the sex kitten receptionist, while working hard at defining the station's new classic rock format (rock fans will enjoy agreeing or disagreeing with his choices). Rick's sleuthing gets a big push from Clay's alienated wife Lori, who tells all she knows, and from a timely tornado thatreveals a skull in the woods. It's not long before the bad guys are rounded up and Rick is on his way to a better gig in Gulfport. The suspense isn't edge-of-the-seat, but it simmers nicely and dovetails surprisingly well with the world of jocks at the station. Agent: Jimmy Vines