FALLING OFF AIR

Journalist Sampson’s first brings us Robin Ballantyne, a TV news producer who just may end up her station’s biggest story.

When her boyfriend Adam Wills cuts and runs from news of her pregnancy, Robin steps off the fast track to be full-time mom to twins Hannah and William. But the appearance of the late Paula Carmichael, one of the Labour Party’s most active MPs, on the doorstep of her modest council house thrusts her back in the limelight. After listening to attractive DCI Finney while he flashes a killer smile and poses probing questions, Robin, realizing she’s been out of the loop too long, hightails it back to Corporation headquarters to ask Maeve Tandy, head of the Current Affairs/Documentary division, for her old job back. When Maeve waffles, offering instead the despised post of ethics editor, Robin wangles an invitation to a swanky awards ceremony so she can rub elbows with the broadcasting elite. Unfortunately, two of the elbows belong to Adam, who wants access to the twins. A planned meeting to discuss visitation is canceled by the discovery of Adam’s body, run over by Robin’s red BMW. Now it’s Robin’s turn to be hounded by the press. They ignore Paula’s connection with Adam, who was filming a documentary about her social programs, and fixate instead on the money Robin will inherit from her late lover’s estate.

Sympathetic characters can't quite overcome the overfamiliar between-two-lovers plot.