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And the characters in this book are just spectacular. Nevada and Agatha are two of my favorite female characters I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading (and I maintain that Gail Ann Dorsey should play the latter if this ever gets adapted for the screen), and every book brings around a new cast of characters that are wildly interesting. The Blue Tits reminded me so much of The Slits, and to center the story around a female punk band just makes my little feminist heart sing. 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. Five stars all around, as per usual. AC: “I mentioned how science fiction was the first stuff I loved to read. As I became a teenager, though, my tastes broadened and I began reading crime fiction, particularly I guess what you’d call hardboiled crime stories, and mainstream fiction — even the sort of literary stuff I rather lambasted above. (For instance, I gamely worked my way through the novels of Thomas Pynchon, including Gravity’s Rainbow). My heroes in crime fiction were (and remain now) John D. MacDonald, Thomas Harris, Raymond Chandler and, as you so astutely note, Dashiell Hammett. Hammett is a big influence with his elegantly pared down prose style and his deeply cynical sense of humour. This book really took me by surprise. On the face of it, this is a book about a guy hunting for a record. Thrilling right? Well, you’d be surprised, I was! But the term ‘Vinyl Detective’ had already escaped into the wild, so to speak, and it sprouted up in several other places. I just accepted this philosophically. I still believe I was the first to come up with it, though. (Of course.) Pandora loves books. She enjoys reading, writing, and editing them. She started this blog to highlight some of her favourite books, and review some new and old books along the way. ❤️📘
Imagine my surprise as I started to gather my thoughts for this review I found that a 6th book is scheduled for release on 5/17/22 a day shy of my 70th birthday celebration. Huh... RA: Is there much research involved for each book? How long did you work on Written in Dead Wax before you were satisfied that it was ready for publication? Another thing about this book which is both surprising and interesting is the historical element, sure it is a made-up history, but it adds depth and introduces secondary characters who you care about almost as much as our protagonist and his friends. Review
The Viny Detective Series Review
As for basing characters on real people, there is always a little — or a lot — of the author in the characters that he or she writes. There can’t help but be. We all see the world through our own eyes and express our own experience. And then there’s also the low hanging fruit principle — when it came to making up the world of the Vinyl Detective books it was easy and useful to use my local environment. It meant the descriptions were solid, authentic and consistent. It also saved a hell of a lot of time on research.
Top new mystery adventure game OXENFREE II: Lost Signals. The long-awaited sequel from Night School … Read more On the train on the way home, I continued to read and I was not disappointed. This story is simple in its essence, but actually really good. There are so many twists and turns, surprises and unusual, elements to this story. A good old fashioned mystery. I wasn’t looking forward to this one as much as the previous two. Not because I didn’t want more Vinyl Detective, but more because I spent so much of my adolescence studying The World Wars, that anything to do with them immediately turns me off. It is the reason that I haven’t read or watched ‘War Horse’ or ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas’. Plot: When one of his cats accidentally discovers a rare Victory Disc, the Vinyl Detective and his girlfriend, Nevada, are whisked into the world of big band swing music and a mystery that began during the Second World War. In the first chapter, the main character’s cat dies. I’m not going to lie, I almost stopped reading at this point, but the way Andrew describes cats really did win me over, and don’t worry, he does get a new cat or two. This reminded me of a talk I attended the previous year with Mark Billingham, in which he mentioned that; as a crime writer, he is allowed to do whatever he wants to a human in his books, but the moment he speaks of harming an animal, his readers are up in arms, he receives letters, he has angry conversations with readers, he has even received death threats. For a man who wrote a book about the Brighton cat killer, this can be quite challenging.The Vinyl Detectives’ love of good coffee, good food, and fine wine are developed more throughout this book as are his relationships with Nevada, Tinkler, Clean Head, and Stinky. It is these relationships that provide the relevant depth and keep you reading/listening.
The Vinyl Detective goes Scandi Noir? Yes please!”— Ben Aaronovitch, author of the Rivers of London series. This charming mystery feels as companionable as a leisurely afternoon trawling the vintage shops with a good friend.”As I'm listening to this on an audio book, a word about the narrator. He does a brilliant job of holding my attention. On the other hand, on occasion I found my thoughts drifting in other directions, to areas that are largely untouched. It's becoming downright improbable that our hero never encounters any officers of the law, or really anyone in authority, really. And what about young people, are there any left? I would just love to see the LP Sleuth take on the travails of a boy-band, for example, or a talent show winner perhaps; anyone with a career in music that was still active, basically. (Okay, I know earlier episodes have touched on that, lightly.) Sound interesting? It makes for prismatic, quixotic reading – especially if you’re a music lover with a vinyl LP fetish.
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