Side Hustle

Journalist have somewhat of a chequered reputation, for every Watergate, there is ten celebrities caught in the act. In recent times, the profession has cleaned up its act a little, but it still relies heavily on eyes on the page or viewing figures. This leads to a competitive market and some journalists willing to cut corners to get the scoop. We met Sydney Quinn in Fleet Landing where she helped the protagonist solve a series of arsons, but in Side Hustle she is given the limelight, and it takes a little of the shine off as we see more of how Sydney operates.

As usual Sydney Quinn is on the case when an apparent hostage taking is happening on her beat. Rather than stand behind the barrier she sneaks in to listen to the hostage negotiation. It turns out there is an opportunity for her to enter scene. Inside she discovers the dead body of her friend - an Insurance Broker, two paramedic hostages, and an ex-Firefighter who is holding the gun. There is more to this case than first meets the eye, and whilst the police are happy to close it quickly, Sidney digs deeper and discovers a conspiracy surrounding a large local insurance company.

The Carolina Crossfire by Wendy Gee is a series of stories set in Charleston, the characters mix, but the protagonist can change. We met Sydney in the first book as a spunky reporter who aided the fire investigator and became the love interest. Here in book two, the fire investigator is nowhere to be seen, and Sydney is left alone to uncover the truth behind her friend’s murder and have affairs and partake in illegal street races.

Sydney is a complicated character, driven, but also haunted. We learn more about her past, the trauma that she went through as a war correspondent. She has led to a certain recklessness in her reporting style and in her life. This makes her character quick to react and a great reporter, but perhaps not the most sympathetic, even is we do learn about her troubled past.

The case itself is an intriguing one but does tackle a couple of areas that are not always the most interesting to read on the page – insurance and hacking. I have yet to come across an exciting interpretation of computer hacking in fiction, and I afraid that Gee is not able to achieve this noble aim. The insurance aspect does not sound exciting either, but it works well as part of the wider story.

As a whodunnit, Side Hustle is a solid affair, there are several suspects, twists and turns. I was able to determine some of the twists, which lessoned the impact of them, but other readers may not. I am not convinced that Sydney comes across as sympathetic in this outing, forgoing the love interest in the first novel to move on to a yacht in the next. A little bit too much of the tabloid journalist peaks out from behind the investigative journalist curtain.

I am not convinced that Sydney comes out of Side Hustle a better person, she starts to work on her demons but has still managed to prove a success despite her dubious reporting techniques. It seems to reward bad behaviour; this can work and often happens in real life. Sydney may have been better suited being even more reckless and unlikable, trying to paint her as a heroine proves tricky. If future Carolina Crossfire novels are published, perhaps focussing on Detective Lieutenant “Dino”, she would make a good colour character for the background.