I was given the opportunity to read an ARC of Kovac’s debut novel The Cutaway by Simon & Schuster Canada. I have to say I really enjoyed it. If you want to hear more about my thoughts on the book check out my review. Today, I am excited to be taking part in The Cutaway blog tour run by Dark Sides Reads a new site from Simon & Schuster Canada dedicated to highlighting the best in mystery, thriller, horror and suspense. To read a Q&A with the author Christina Kovac keep on reading!

What was the transition like from working as a journalist to writing fiction? 

The deadlines went from, “I needed that story twenty minutes ago” to “have a manuscript in by January 2018.”  It’s so chill!  In some ways, though, it’s the same.  You’re telling a story about stuff that people do, you do it the best you can in the time allotted, and when the due date comes, you turn it in.  I do miss my friends in news, but I’m also grateful to be home for my children at the end of the school day.  Not many working parents are so lucky.

Virginia Knightly is a powerful woman in an environment run by men.  How was her experience different/same?

Well, I don’t want to out anyone.  I would say this:  sexism and sexual harassment is alive and well in the television industry.  Some workplaces are much better than others, of course.  Look at the fall of Roger Ailes of Fox News.  Thankfully, I never had to deal with that.  Another problem female journalists face is this:  that old myth that female journalists will give sexual favors for a story.  It even showed up in an early season of House of Cards.  I have never seen that happen, and I always resented it when people whispered that was how I or other women got our information.  How awful.

When Virginia first gets the missing bulletin for Evelyn Carney, the Police Department isn’t keen to investigate and the story is almost dismissed.  It was Virginia’s interest that made Evelyn’s case into a story.  Has there ever been a story you wanted to pursue but was unable to?

Oh, sure.  More times than I can count.  Putting together a broadcast news story is a team effort, and it requires a lot of assets–talent, photographer, camera equipment, satellite trucks, etc—and that all costs money and time.  During the editorial meetings, a group of reporters and producers get together and decide what stories to focus on, knowing you can’t do everything.  There are only so many resources.  Gwen Ifill talked about this, famously:  Bias isn’t how you report.  It’s what you choose not to report.  (Or something like that).  Anyway, sometimes we chased the stories I pitched, sometimes we didn’t.  I remember very early on in my career, I got a call from an elderly woman in DC who said her grandson—who was a good boy, she said–hadn’t come home from school, and she knew he’d been in danger, and no one would listen to her.  Could we help?  She was a poor woman who lived in an area known for violent crimes.  She said none of the other television stations believed her or seemed to care, but something in her voice set my news ping off.  We worked the story, though it did not end well.  Her grandson, who was a good student and had been coming home from band practice, was robbed and killed for his shoes.

            But we had listened to the woman, and we had done what we could do.  We had shown no bias.  That was how we got that awful story.

WOW – hearing about how the main character is written and how the experiences Kovac went through in her profession really make the book that much better, in my opinion!

Synopsis: The Cutaway draws you into the tangled world of corruption and cover-up as a young television producer investigates the disappearance of a beautiful Georgetown lawyer in this stunning psychological thriller, perfect for fans of Paula Hawkins and Gillian Flynn.

When brilliant TV news producer Virginia Knightly receives a disturbing “MISSING” notice on her desk related to the disappearance of a beautiful young attorney, she can’t seem to shake the image from her head. Despite skepticism from her colleagues, Knightly suspects this ambitious young lawyer may be at the heart of something far more sinister, especially since she was last seen leaving an upscale restaurant after a domestic dispute. Yet, as the only woman of power at her station, Knightly quickly finds herself investigating on her own.

Risking her career, her life, and perhaps even her own sanity, Knightly dives deep into the dark underbelly of Washington, DC business and politics in an investigation that will drag her mercilessly through the inextricable webs of corruption that bind the press, the police, and politics in our nation’s capital.

Harkening to dark thrillers such as Gone Girl, Luckiest Girl Alive, and Big Little Lies, The Cutaway is a striking debut that will haunt you long after you reach the last page [x].

Please check out everyone else’s stops on the tour to find out more information about the book and to read other reviews! Thanks for letting me take part in this blog tour Darkside Reads/Simon and Schuster Canada!

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