Air Time: A Charlotte McNally Novel by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Air Time: A Charlotte McNally Novel by Hank Phillippi Ryan. Mira Books. September 2009. ISBN #: 9780778327196

Back in the 1980s one could travel to parts of the Far East and buy copycat handbags, wallets, suitcases and more at phenomenal savings, albeit with a pretty hefty flight fee for the romp! But now Hank Phillippi Ryan tackles another side of this sinister traffic in fake couture with famous labels ascribed to each purchase stemming from Paris and sold anywhere in the world. Only the added costs are higher than any reader could imagine!

Charlie McNally is at it again, hooked into another award-winning undercover story that will perhaps stymie her insecurities for another year but which are forcing her to face even greater personal and career hurdles!

Charlie and Franklin are on their way to have an initial interview with a woman who is willing to talk about the Prada look-alike pocketbooks that are making famous companies lose a substantial chunk of change in their profit margins. But after she meets another woman in the airport, she begins to realize this scamming goes quite deeper. For there are those who sell fake copies at home show and will commit any crime to keep these sales moving. The only way to get the scoop is to go undercover, an opportunity Charlie just can't resist.

How deep is one's career drive that one would risk losing one's life and one's only meaningful love? Is Charlie just driven by the competition in her TV journalistic field or is there more to an addiction to suspense and danger? While the pace in this third and last Charlotte McNally series drives along at breakneck speed, the reader is forced to realize he or she doesn't want Charlie to lose her Josh and begins to get annoyed at Charlie for having her priorities rather skewed! But the conclusion of this mystery overrides those reactions by miles as the central, secret criminals in this high-drama cast are uncovered.

Air Time is a little bit more on the serious side but it still manages to rivet the reader on a controversial issue, the rage for "brands" that will drive some to mayhem and murder! Kudos to Ms. Ryan for an exhilarating, interesting, mysterious and romantic read!