Review: The Fair Weather Friend by Jessie Garcia

About the Book

Product Details

ISBN-13:9781250364456

Publisher:St. Martin’s Publishing Group

Publication date: 1/20/2026

Pages: 320

Synopsis (from Barnes and Noble)

It’s always sunny in Detroit for Faith Richards. The popular TV meteorologist, endearingly referred to as “The Fair Weather Friend” by her viewers, has the world by the tail. But one night, Faith leaves work on a dinner break and never returns. Her body is found the next morning.

The town is reeling, suspects emerge, and long-buried secrets are uncovered. While her allies rally, her list of adversaries also grows. Little does anyone know that only the deepest secrets will expose the truth.

My Thoughts

This book has everything I enjoy in a suspense book with plenty of mystery and domestic drama, too. Faith Richards is the title character, a meteorologist with a news station in Detroit and she is at the top of her game when she is first introduced. Other members of her team are jealous of how popular she is with fans, she has her own fan club and a stalker, too. When she disappears one night between shows, there is a lot of speculation about what happened to her and a host of very unhappy fans. When the medical examiner announces that she is deceased and was strangled, there mystery takes off and doesn’t let up until the very end. There are some secondary characters who seem like supporting characters but who are very important to the twists in the story. There are so many twists and a plethora of possible suspects for who killed Faith. The author does a good job of creating relatable characters for the ones we are supposed to like and an equally good job leading us to dislike others. I enjoyed the well-developed characters, the backstory of Faith and her sister Hope, and the side story of Olivia the intern. Together, these characters led me on a merry chase to figure out what was really going on and who was the real culprit in Faith’s sad tale. The conclusion was so surprising that I had to read several pages twice to make sure that I was not missing anything. This is a brilliantly written domestic suspense with all of the earmarks of bordering on a thriller. I cannot divulge any secrets because readers will have to be mislead just as I was; it certainly added to the entertainment factor of the novel. I found the book informative as well as engaging since it gave some inside scoops about what happens in a newsroom along with some great fictional conflicts. This is one of my top reads for the year and should get more than five stars for creativity and a brilliant plot.
I won a copy of this book from the publisher via a Goodreads Giveaway. I was not required to write a positive review, and all opinions expressed are my own.

About the Author

Jessie Garcia is the News Director at the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee. Her non-fiction books, “My Life with the Green and Gold: Tales from 20 Years of Sportscasting” and “Going for Wisconsin Gold: Stories of our State Olympians” won Midwest Book Awards, and her documentary “Leaps and Bounds: The Men Who Changed Track and Field” was featured in over a dozen film festivals. She also taught journalism at four universities. A native of Madison, WI, Jessie has two adult sons and resides in Milwaukee with her husband, dog and cat. For more information, check out her website at Jessie Garcia