Cover Story

Summary: Tobi Fletcher is a reporter at a Santa Fe newspaper, who is raring to write stories that will ‘Make A Difference’ and even win her Pulitzer Prizes. So when her editor wants her to drop the hot story of a scandal at the Senator’s office and investigate a series of gnomicides (the murder of garden gnomes), she is not amused.

She is intelligent, independent unlike her mother and sister, whose lives are focused on men, shopping and other frivolous pursuits.

She reluctantly interviews Simon, the man who reported the gnomicides, his four-year old daughter, and the other residents of the street. Each has their own theory about the incident, ranging from the slightly possible to the ludicrous. Tobi, repressing sneezes while battling her pollen allergy, writes the story.

Her editor loves it and demands more; interstate papers pick it up and reader feedback is overwhelming. So she finds herself returning to the street more times than she likes and facing her inexplicable attraction to Simon.

This book by Rachel Bailey is about how Tobi discovers many secrets about other people as well as herself and realizes that life can be quite enjoyable if she only lets go of her iron control over herself.

My thoughts: Having worked at a newspaper, it was easy for me to relate to Tobi's experiences at her job. 

Rachel seems to be comfortable writing about characters regardless of their age and disposition. She has described all the characters in the book well, from the four-year-old Anna to the teenager Davo to Anna’s grandfather Gerald and from the control freak Tobi to her frivolous, immature mother. 

Cover Story shows how fickle the world of news reporting can be and how randomly some stories become popular without any rhyme or reason. It also shows how the stories they report affect reporters and the people they cover.

Overall, this book was a good mix of the realistic, the outlandish, the funny, and the serious.

Note: The publisher, Momentum Books, gave this book to me in exchange for an honest review. I thank them for that.