Christina Estes says her two mysteries are love letters to Phoenix, the unlikely place she now calls home.

PHOENIX — As a kid, Christina Estes loved reading mystery books like Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, and Trixie Belden. As an adult, Estes doesn’t just enjoy reading mysteries—she’s now telling the stories her younger self loved to devour. 

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Estes, a former Valley journalist and current communications director for the vice mayor of Phoenix, published her second mystery book ‘The Story That Wouldn’t Die’ on Aug. 19. The novel is the second following main character Jolene Garcia, a local TV news reporter in Phoenix who is always looking for a story and almost always ends up finding a mystery along the way.

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Her first book, ‘Off the Air,’ follows Jolene as she covers one of the biggest stories of her career: the death of a local controversial radio host. In the latest novel, readers are brought along to another tale with Jolene as she writes about the death of a local businessman that just doesn’t seem like an accident to the intrepid reporter. 

But to learn the truth of why he was killed, Jolene has to contend with some shady characters—many of whom don’t want to see the story or Jolene stay alive.

When she first started to write Jolene’s character, Estes said the character looked completely different than the Jolene readers see on the page.

“She was the 29-year-old reporter in Phoenix I wish I had been when I was a 29-year-old reporter in Phoenix, which means I created somebody who was a great reporter and had a great life,” Estes explained. “That’s not who you want to read about, right? Otherwise, it’s a boring story: ‘Oh, this person has a perfect life.’ 

So, I really had to find a character that I truly cared about and wanted to root for.”

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Estes’ own experience as a foster parent plays into Jolene’s backstory as a child who went through the social services system, and Estes’ career at Valley TV and radio stations is what inspired the newsroom dynamic readers see on the page. 

“The best parts are always to me the newsroom interactions and the experiences with colleagues, because they make me laugh and they make me recall my experiences and the people that I encountered,” Estes said. “Newsroom dynamics are very interesting and unusual sometimes for people who’ve never experienced it.”

And the inspiration doesn’t stop there. During her tenure at NPR station KJZZ in Phoenix, Estes covered local government, and she wanted to share her love for the topic through the pages of ‘The Story That Wouldn’t Die.’ In fact, if you read closely enough, you may even recognize a real news story or two featured between the fiction.

“We in Phoenix, we can’t necessarily as individuals, I should say, as one person living in Phoenix, I can’t really do much to influence the state legislature or what’s happening in Washington D.C.,” Estes said. “But as one person living in Phoenix, I have a council person who is elected to represent me and where I live, and I can make a phone call or send an email, and that person will respond; that’s their job, and that’s what I love so much about local government.”

‘The Story That Wouldn’t Die’ continues Jolene’s story, something Estes said because she wanted to see Jolene’s character grow and change.

“I love the second book so much because it feels even more personal to me, because it’s inspired by my own reporting and because really Jolene is evolving as a person and a reporter, and she’s got a really big opportunity that comes up,” Estes said.

In both of her books, Estes features local businesses that readers can visit throughout Phoenix, like Miracle Mile Deli, Luana’s Coffee and Beer, and many others. In ‘The Story That Wouldn’t Die’,  Estes said she wanted to show the places throughout the Valley that have made the desert her home.

But while the city itself plays a prominent role in the story, that wasn’t what Estes originally set out to do—in her books or in her life.

“I never imagined that I would ever write a book that was set in Phoenix because when I moved here more than 20 years ago, I had zero plans to stay,” Estes explained with a laugh. “Here I am, more than 20 years later, writing a love letter to Phoenix.”

Both of Estes’s love letters to Phoenix—’The Story That Wouldn’t Die’ and ‘Off The Air’—are now available wherever you buy books. If you’re looking for more of Estes’ work, you can keep up with her on social media, and if you want more Reading Arizona, you can subscribe to 12News on YouTube for all things books and literacy.

If you have a book or literacy-related story pitch, email koconnor@12news.com. Happy Reading, Arizona!


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