R.G. Belsky's Blog, page 2
January 7, 2024
800 AMAZON REVIEWS!
Wow! YESTERDAY'S NEWS, the first book in my Clare Carlson mystery series, just went over 800 reader reviews on Amazon - the most Amazon reviews I've ever gotten! And I've got over 600 ratings on Goodreads.
Of course, it helped that my publisher gave away digital copies throughout December to promote the sale of my new Clare Carlson book BROADCAST BLUES. But YESTERDAY'S NEWS is still selling for just $1.99 on Kindle if you want to check it out.
And BROADCAST BLUES - the brand new Clare Cartlson - went on sale this past week in both hardcover and ebook - audible coming soon.
Buy here
Of course, it helped that my publisher gave away digital copies throughout December to promote the sale of my new Clare Carlson book BROADCAST BLUES. But YESTERDAY'S NEWS is still selling for just $1.99 on Kindle if you want to check it out.
And BROADCAST BLUES - the brand new Clare Cartlson - went on sale this past week in both hardcover and ebook - audible coming soon.
Buy here
January 2, 2024
IT'S HERE! BROADCAST BLUES, THE NEW CLARE CARLSON MYSTERY...
It's here! Today is publication day for BROADCAST BLUES, the new book in my Clare Carlson mystery series. Available in hardcover and Kindle.
Here's what people are saying about BROADCAST BLUES:
“Broadcast Blues is a page-turning, meticulously plotted crime novel enriched by a terrific New York sense of place, Dick Belsky’s wicked sense of humor, and his insider’s view of the Machiavellian world that is broadcast news.” —Jonathan Kellerman, New York Times best-selling author
"Brisk and enjoyable.... Satisfying suspects, plausible motives, and some truly surprising plot twists make this a winner. Readers will clamor for the next installment" -Publishers Weekly
"Clare Carlson is a most compelling character...I could not put this one down. Belsky hits a nice balance between some good humor in the dialogue and real danger to his characters in the plot. I did not see the resolution of the main plot and subplots until the story got tied together at the end – didn’t see it coming...this novel gets my strongest recommendation." - Men Reading Books
"All the pieces are in place and expert author R.G. Belsky just starts toppling a chain of dominoes. At that point it’s hard to look away from the page. Expect murder and duplicity, all covered by Channel 10. BROADCAST BLUES could refer to the NYPD, the troubles at the station, or the angst of a woman seeing her best years in the rear view mirror. These make a powerful combination and probably Belsky’s best story to date." - Fresh Fiction
BUY HERE
Here's what people are saying about BROADCAST BLUES:
“Broadcast Blues is a page-turning, meticulously plotted crime novel enriched by a terrific New York sense of place, Dick Belsky’s wicked sense of humor, and his insider’s view of the Machiavellian world that is broadcast news.” —Jonathan Kellerman, New York Times best-selling author
"Brisk and enjoyable.... Satisfying suspects, plausible motives, and some truly surprising plot twists make this a winner. Readers will clamor for the next installment" -Publishers Weekly
"Clare Carlson is a most compelling character...I could not put this one down. Belsky hits a nice balance between some good humor in the dialogue and real danger to his characters in the plot. I did not see the resolution of the main plot and subplots until the story got tied together at the end – didn’t see it coming...this novel gets my strongest recommendation." - Men Reading Books
"All the pieces are in place and expert author R.G. Belsky just starts toppling a chain of dominoes. At that point it’s hard to look away from the page. Expect murder and duplicity, all covered by Channel 10. BROADCAST BLUES could refer to the NYPD, the troubles at the station, or the angst of a woman seeing her best years in the rear view mirror. These make a powerful combination and probably Belsky’s best story to date." - Fresh Fiction
BUY HERE
January 1, 2024
Terrific Review of BROADCAST BLUES in FRESH FICTION!
Got a nice start to the New Year this morning with this review from Fresh Fiction of my new novel. BROADCAST BLUES is out tomorrow.
"All the pieces are in place and expert author R.G. Belsky just starts toppling a chain of dominoes. At that point it’s hard to look away from the page. Expect murder and duplicity, all covered by Channel 10. BROADCAST BLUES could refer to the NYPD, the troubles at the station, or the angst of a woman seeing her best years in the rear view mirror. These make a powerful combination and probably Belsky’s best story to date."
Read the Review
"All the pieces are in place and expert author R.G. Belsky just starts toppling a chain of dominoes. At that point it’s hard to look away from the page. Expect murder and duplicity, all covered by Channel 10. BROADCAST BLUES could refer to the NYPD, the troubles at the station, or the angst of a woman seeing her best years in the rear view mirror. These make a powerful combination and probably Belsky’s best story to date."
Read the Review
December 29, 2023
AT MYSTERIOUS BOOKSHOP
Checking out an advance copy of my new book this afternoon at the legendary Mysterious Bookshop in downtown NYC. I'll be holding a big BROADCAST BLUES launch party there on Tuesday evening, Jan. 9. Join me if you can.
More Details Here
More Details Here
December 28, 2023
December 11, 2023
Read an Excerpt from BROADCAST BLUES
Check out the very cool Criminal Element Website to read an excerpt from my upcoming Clare Carlson mystery BROADCAST CLUES. The book will be out Jan. 2 in hardcover and Kindle, audible to follow. Available for pre-sale now...
Read the Excerpt
Read the Excerpt
November 24, 2023
Rave Review in Publishers Weekly for BROADCAST BLUES!
Terrific review from Publishers Weekly for my upcoming Clare Carlson book!
"Brisk and enjoyable.... Satisfying suspects, plausible motives, and some truly surprising plot twists make this a winner. Readers will clamor for the next installment"
Button Text
"Brisk and enjoyable.... Satisfying suspects, plausible motives, and some truly surprising plot twists make this a winner. Readers will clamor for the next installment"
Button Text
TRave Review in Publishers Weekly for BROADCAST BLUES!
Terrific review from Publishers Weekly for my upcoming Clare Carlson book!
"Brisk and enjoyable.... Satisfying suspects, plausible motives, and some truly surprising plot twists make this a winner. Readers will clamor for the next installment"
Button Text
"Brisk and enjoyable.... Satisfying suspects, plausible motives, and some truly surprising plot twists make this a winner. Readers will clamor for the next installment"
Button Text
November 21, 2023
10 Unanswered Questions About The JFK Assassination
I wrote this piece nine years ago when I published my novel THE KENNEDY CONNECTION, about a reporter trying to solve the mysteries of the the JFK assassination on Nov. 22, 1963. I asked 10 questions about what really happened that day. None of them have ever been answered. And so the the assassination of President John F. Kennedy remains the biggest unsolved murder in history....
WHY DID OSWALD HAVE ONLY FOUR BULLETS?
Everyone knows there were three spent cartridges found next to the rifle on the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository. Another bullet was in the chamber of the rifle. But no other ammunition was ever found. Not at the scene, not on Oswald, not in his belongings, not at his home or anywhere else. There was only one or two stores in the Dallas area that sold ammunition for that particular rifle, and no evidence Oswald had ever bought any. So why would Oswald go off to shoot the President with only four bullets for his weapon?
WHY DID SLAIN POLICE OFFICER J.D. TIPPIT STOP OSWALD?
The Warren Commission theorized that it was because Oswald fit the description of a suspect seen fleeing the JFK assassination scene. Okay, that sort of makes sense when you first hear it. Except – upon examination of the facts – it makes no sense at all. The police description broadcast that day was for an: “Unknown white male, approximately 30, 165 pounds, slender build…no further information or description at this time.” That general description clearly matched much of the male population of Dallas. (and didn’t exactly match Oswald). So why did Tippit – seeing a man simply walking down a street in the middle of the day miles from the assassination site – decide to stop him as a possible suspect prior to their deadly encounter?
WHERE DID THE POLICE DESCRIPTION OF A JFK SUSPECT COME FROM?
No one really knows how the police description – vague as it was – ever originated. Many believe it was based on a witness, Howard Brennan, who claimed to have seen a man in the sixth floor window at the time of the assassination. But other accounts say the description came from an unidentified source who said he saw an unidentified man running from the Book Depository after the shots were fired. No official basis for the police broadcast of that early description was ever confirmed.
WAS OSWALD EVEN ON THE 6TH FLOOR AT THE TIME OF THE SHOOTING?
There are no confirmed sightings of Oswald on the 6th floor when JFK was shot. There are, however, a number of people who reported seeing Oswald in other parts of the building, including eating n the lunchroom, shortly before the assassination. Some of these Oswald sightings were as late as 12:25 p.m. , just five minutes before the shots rang out. Making it even more mysterious was that the presidential motorcade was running at least five minutes behind schedule. All of this raises real questions about why Oswald wouldn’t have been in the 6th floor sniper’s perch with the rifle waiting for the motorcade to pass by.
WHAT WAS OSWALD’S MOTIVE?
Why would Lee Harvey Oswald want to kill President Kennedy? If he was indeed a Marxist sympathizer as he proclaimed, Kennedy was an unlikely target. JFK was a liberal president who had been working – against the advice of many hardliners in the government – to end the cold war with the Soviet Union. People who knew Oswald said he had expressed admiration for the young President. The most likely scenario for a motive has always been that Oswald was just an angry little man who wanted to become famous – and thought killing the President was the way to do it. But, if that were true, why did he flee, why did he deny it when he was arrested? If it was all about his ego, wouldn’t he have proclaimed it loudly to the world? To this day, no one has ever come up with a plausible motive why Oswald might have wanted President Kennedy dead.
WHY DID OSWALD GO HOME TO GET A GUN?
After the assassination, Oswald took a taxi and bus back to the rooming house where he was staying. When he got there, he took a handgun from his room and then left for what would be his encounter with Police Officer J.D. Tippit and subsequent arrest in a movie theater. But, if he had really planned to shoot the President that day, why wouldn’t he have taken the handgun with him when he left for work? Instead, it seems as if something unexpected had happened that made Oswald think he needed to go back to where he was living for the gun.
DID A POLICE CAR STOP IN FRONT OF OSWALD’S HOUSE?
Oswald’s landlady made a troublesome claim – which some people give credit to and others are more skeptical of – that a Dallas police car stopped in front of Oswald’s rooming house, honked several times and then pulled away just after 1 p.m. This was about an hour before Oswald’s name would even emerge in the JFK assassination. The Dallas police department said there were no reports of police cars in the area at that time.
HOW DID JACK RUBY GET INTO THE POLICE STATION TO KILL OSWALD?
Sure, Ruby was a friend of cops and had been in the stationhouse earlier in the weekend while Oswald was in custody. But on the morning of November 24, Ruby was running errands with his dogs in the car at the time Oswald was originally scheduled to be transferred. And then somehow he wound up in the basement at exactly the right time to pull the trigger. Many have theories about Ruby’s movements and motives on that day, but no real answers.
DID OSWALD KNOW RUBY?
Some people who worked at Jack Ruby’s strip club made claims – none substantiated – that they saw Oswald there as a patron. There was also speculation that both men had known the same underworld figures. And some have even speculated that there seemed to be a look of recognition on Oswald’s face in the basement of the Dallas police station seconds before Ruby lunged out of the crowd and shot him. But no actual relationship has ever been established between the two men until Ruby silenced Oswald forever with a single gunshot to the stomach.
WHY DIDN’T EARL WARREN TAKE RUBY BACK TO WASHINGTON TO TESTIFY?
When Chief Justice Earl Warren and other members of the Warren Commission went To Dallas to interview Jack Ruby in prison, Ruby pleaded with Warren to take him back to Washington to testify, saying his life was in danger in Dallas and “I want to tell the truth, and I can’t tell it here.” Warren refused and Ruby died a few years later, taking his secrets to the grave with him. And leaving us with so many unanswered questions….
WHY DID OSWALD HAVE ONLY FOUR BULLETS?
Everyone knows there were three spent cartridges found next to the rifle on the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository. Another bullet was in the chamber of the rifle. But no other ammunition was ever found. Not at the scene, not on Oswald, not in his belongings, not at his home or anywhere else. There was only one or two stores in the Dallas area that sold ammunition for that particular rifle, and no evidence Oswald had ever bought any. So why would Oswald go off to shoot the President with only four bullets for his weapon?
WHY DID SLAIN POLICE OFFICER J.D. TIPPIT STOP OSWALD?
The Warren Commission theorized that it was because Oswald fit the description of a suspect seen fleeing the JFK assassination scene. Okay, that sort of makes sense when you first hear it. Except – upon examination of the facts – it makes no sense at all. The police description broadcast that day was for an: “Unknown white male, approximately 30, 165 pounds, slender build…no further information or description at this time.” That general description clearly matched much of the male population of Dallas. (and didn’t exactly match Oswald). So why did Tippit – seeing a man simply walking down a street in the middle of the day miles from the assassination site – decide to stop him as a possible suspect prior to their deadly encounter?
WHERE DID THE POLICE DESCRIPTION OF A JFK SUSPECT COME FROM?
No one really knows how the police description – vague as it was – ever originated. Many believe it was based on a witness, Howard Brennan, who claimed to have seen a man in the sixth floor window at the time of the assassination. But other accounts say the description came from an unidentified source who said he saw an unidentified man running from the Book Depository after the shots were fired. No official basis for the police broadcast of that early description was ever confirmed.
WAS OSWALD EVEN ON THE 6TH FLOOR AT THE TIME OF THE SHOOTING?
There are no confirmed sightings of Oswald on the 6th floor when JFK was shot. There are, however, a number of people who reported seeing Oswald in other parts of the building, including eating n the lunchroom, shortly before the assassination. Some of these Oswald sightings were as late as 12:25 p.m. , just five minutes before the shots rang out. Making it even more mysterious was that the presidential motorcade was running at least five minutes behind schedule. All of this raises real questions about why Oswald wouldn’t have been in the 6th floor sniper’s perch with the rifle waiting for the motorcade to pass by.
WHAT WAS OSWALD’S MOTIVE?
Why would Lee Harvey Oswald want to kill President Kennedy? If he was indeed a Marxist sympathizer as he proclaimed, Kennedy was an unlikely target. JFK was a liberal president who had been working – against the advice of many hardliners in the government – to end the cold war with the Soviet Union. People who knew Oswald said he had expressed admiration for the young President. The most likely scenario for a motive has always been that Oswald was just an angry little man who wanted to become famous – and thought killing the President was the way to do it. But, if that were true, why did he flee, why did he deny it when he was arrested? If it was all about his ego, wouldn’t he have proclaimed it loudly to the world? To this day, no one has ever come up with a plausible motive why Oswald might have wanted President Kennedy dead.
WHY DID OSWALD GO HOME TO GET A GUN?
After the assassination, Oswald took a taxi and bus back to the rooming house where he was staying. When he got there, he took a handgun from his room and then left for what would be his encounter with Police Officer J.D. Tippit and subsequent arrest in a movie theater. But, if he had really planned to shoot the President that day, why wouldn’t he have taken the handgun with him when he left for work? Instead, it seems as if something unexpected had happened that made Oswald think he needed to go back to where he was living for the gun.
DID A POLICE CAR STOP IN FRONT OF OSWALD’S HOUSE?
Oswald’s landlady made a troublesome claim – which some people give credit to and others are more skeptical of – that a Dallas police car stopped in front of Oswald’s rooming house, honked several times and then pulled away just after 1 p.m. This was about an hour before Oswald’s name would even emerge in the JFK assassination. The Dallas police department said there were no reports of police cars in the area at that time.
HOW DID JACK RUBY GET INTO THE POLICE STATION TO KILL OSWALD?
Sure, Ruby was a friend of cops and had been in the stationhouse earlier in the weekend while Oswald was in custody. But on the morning of November 24, Ruby was running errands with his dogs in the car at the time Oswald was originally scheduled to be transferred. And then somehow he wound up in the basement at exactly the right time to pull the trigger. Many have theories about Ruby’s movements and motives on that day, but no real answers.
DID OSWALD KNOW RUBY?
Some people who worked at Jack Ruby’s strip club made claims – none substantiated – that they saw Oswald there as a patron. There was also speculation that both men had known the same underworld figures. And some have even speculated that there seemed to be a look of recognition on Oswald’s face in the basement of the Dallas police station seconds before Ruby lunged out of the crowd and shot him. But no actual relationship has ever been established between the two men until Ruby silenced Oswald forever with a single gunshot to the stomach.
WHY DIDN’T EARL WARREN TAKE RUBY BACK TO WASHINGTON TO TESTIFY?
When Chief Justice Earl Warren and other members of the Warren Commission went To Dallas to interview Jack Ruby in prison, Ruby pleaded with Warren to take him back to Washington to testify, saying his life was in danger in Dallas and “I want to tell the truth, and I can’t tell it here.” Warren refused and Ruby died a few years later, taking his secrets to the grave with him. And leaving us with so many unanswered questions….
November 6, 2023
RAVE REVIEW FOR BROADCAST BLUES!
Just got this terrific early review from the Men Reading Books blog for BROADCAST BLUES, my upcoming Clare Carlson book.
"Clare Carlson is a most compelling character...I could not put this one down. Belsky hits a nice balance between some good humor in the dialogue and real danger to his characters in the plot. I did not see the resolution of the main plot and subplots until the story got tied together at the end – didn’t see it coming...this novel gets my strongest recommendation."
Read the full review
"Clare Carlson is a most compelling character...I could not put this one down. Belsky hits a nice balance between some good humor in the dialogue and real danger to his characters in the plot. I did not see the resolution of the main plot and subplots until the story got tied together at the end – didn’t see it coming...this novel gets my strongest recommendation."
Read the full review
