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The members of Black Dog performed an infamous publicity stunt on Halig Island: they burned a million dollars on an enormous bonfire. When introduced to one, you never know which way it will end, much like most of the characters to be fair. One of the blurbs for this book is by Ben Aarononovitch: "All the energy and menace of a a punk gig circa 1976".
An irresistible blend of murder, mystery and music… our protagonist seeks to find the rarest of records – and incidentally solve a murder, right a great historical injustice and, if he’s very lucky, avoid dying in the process. And I was not disappointed this book is full of mystery, conspiracy theory, rock n roll culture, and secrets and lies. The chief delight, I thought, was the introduction of a certain older character known to one of our protagonists, very nicely done.I went on to recommend this book to a friend of mine, only to find that she had already read it, and the two sequels and was totally in love with the series as I was. I don’t know if I’ll jump into Agatha Christie and Ayelet Waldman right away, but I’m certainly excited to read the next Vinyl Detective.
We get to find out more about Nevada – and surely there is a "Nevada: The Early Years" spin-off somewhere in there Mr. I loved the clear send-up of the Pistols on the Bill Grundy show in the 70s, and the phrase “Goat Aid” is not one I was expecting to read, but I’m hilariously amused that I did. The music part was a fascinating addition and I liked to read about punk and the age of Sex Pistols. The crime mysteries that the Vinyl Detective becomes embroiled in all have a music connection - and enough twists, turns and red-herrings to keep the reader fascinated.
The female characters are always good in this, having hobbies and getting stuff done, they even got to use sledgehammers in this one. But I wanted this hero and the mystery woman to then get together and become a couple, a crime solving duo like Hammett’s Nick and Nora Charles. So friendly and chatty with everyone who came up and presented them with any number of items to sign. This time, the Vinyl Detective (VD does not seem like an appropriate abbreviation) and Nevada dive into the UK punk scene on the trail of the ultra-rare debut album by the all-girl punk pioneers the Blue Tits. Popular or genre fiction by its very nature is more active, external and dramatic with a lot of plot and incident.
Can you speak to me about where the drive and imagination to bring these personalities to life comes from? Hammett is a big influence with his elegantly pared down prose style and his deeply cynical sense of humour.
There are some genuine ‘ laugh out loud’ aspects to the book and at one point, I actually found myself welling up. Literary fiction is often (but not always) passive, internalised, low on incident and very long on atmosphere and scene setting and characterisation — and crucially short on plot. It’s safe to say that you’ve had a long and varied career with an incredibly successful arc that has seen you go from post-graduate studies in computer science to script writing and script-editing in the ’80s and ’90s for several BBC television series including the wildly successful Doctor Who. If Cabot Cove, the setting of Murder She Wrote, actually existed, it might have an old lady writing mysteries there, but it would also be the murder capital of the world.
Helene Hilditch – formerly known as Howlin’ Hellbitch – of all-girl punk outfit Blue Tits is a mean guitarist, someone is trying to kill her. Mystery books don't need sexual encounters written in them when there is no true advancement storyline wise and more so when they're comprised of a stable couple that has fur kids (I don't care to know about their nocturnal habits) said that. As with ‘Written in dead Wax’ the story begins simply with the Vinyl Detective finding a disc (well actually, his cat finds it), a rare disc, and the story begins from there.His introduction to Nevada sparks his career as a detective, not only of vinyl but of the stories behind some of the rarest and sort-after vinyl in existence. Along the way the Vinyl Detective finds out what happened to the missing child, and it wasn’t what anyone expected – or wanted – to hear.
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