Charleston’s top investigative TV reporter, Sydney Quinn, lives to expose the city’s darkest secrets. So when a former firefighter takes two paramedics hostage, she talks her way inside, offering to gather intel in exchange for a story that could boost her career.
Sydney Quinn, Action 7 News reporter, returns in ‘Side Hustle’ after her successful outing in ‘Fleet Landing,’ recently reviewed here. As is her habit, obsessively downing Diet Mountain Dews, Sydney suddenly finds herself in the midst of a hostage situation involving two paramedics and Piper Kingston, an employee of Lansing Group, known more frequently as LG, lying dead on the floor.
Ever on the case, Mandy Reynolds, researcher for Action 7 News, tries in vain to come up with background information on the hostage-taker, Josh Andrews, a troubled firefighter. Josh, needless to say, has gotten himself into quite a pickle.
When Josh demands to speak with a reporter, Lieutenant Draymond “Dino” Bernadino with the Charleston Police Department agrees to let Sydney enter the crime scene. After a somewhat successful resolution of the hostage situation, several unanswered questions remain, not least of which is whether Josh killed Piper Kingston.
While Josh is handcuffed and led away, Sydney pilfers through Piper’s papers before the SWAT team secures the room. Sydney had known Piper for a couple of years, who had suggested that the Lansing Group handle her insurance and investment needs. Before her death, Piper had been in charge of settling claims disputes in LG’s high-risk insurance management section.
Sidney learns of a data breach at LG that potentially jeopardizes client confidentiality. There is also the matter of Piper’s missing laptop and her hot-pink flash drive to be sorted out. Part of Sydney’s motivation for investigating LG may stem from the company’s failure to pay her insurance claim for the house fire, leaving her without a permanent residence. Regardless, she and Dino brainstorm about the murder of Piper, trying to sort out details and understand the killer’s motivation, which includes a clever reference to Claude Rains in “Casablanca” about rounding up the usual suspects.
As part of her subsequent investigation, Sydney encounters Grace Rogers, personal executive assistant to the LG CEO Gavin Lansing. In addition to the other leads, Sydney also pursues corporate embezzlement as a possible motive for Piper’s death and is suspicious of Gavin’s apparent lack of interest in the possibility of such a crime. It seems that no one can provide a good explanation regarding Piper’s death, not even Security Chief Mason Sterling, who, as it turns out, happens to be an old friend of Sydney’s from years back.
Ted Armstrong, LG’s top programmer, figures in and out of the mix periodically. The story centers on his possible involvement in developing a cybersecurity virus that could yield a lucrative payoff as a weapon. Whatever proof there may be almost certainly exists on the missing flash drive, a development that powers much of the story’s tension. Sydney follows the evidence, meandering down some rabbit holes and dead ends periodically, but nearly always comporting herself as the seasoned reporter she is.
Having lived in South Carolina for a year, the references to the city of Beaufort and the plethora of palmetto trees, among several others, provide welcome signposts for readers. The novel proceeds briskly to its compelling denouement, with enough surprises to keep readers guessing throughout. “Side Hustle” is author Wendy Gee’s second published novel.
Available in bookstores on February 24th
11k
19.8k
1.5k
1.8k