"Seattle, 1988. When musician Craig Adler dies of a heroin overdose, music journalist Laura Benton wonders if there’s a story behind the death. After all, his band, Snakeblood, was set to be the first of the new Seattle bands to sign a major record deal. And everyone said he’d been clean for months. As Laura digs, the threats start. She’s onto something, but she doesn’t know quite what it is, or the danger it will bring her into…"
Chris Nickson is the author of the Richard of Nottingham Mysteries - I have reviewed and enjoyed At the Dying of the Year. But be warned this is different. VERY different. Laura has a passion and that passion is music. There are many references in the story to bands and artists - some real and some fictitious - and I don't share that passion - so many of the references meant little or nothing to me - but that's not the point because if you just roll with it, it just reinforces the passion of the characters - and left me wishing I had been more in the music scene in my youth.
You develop expectations of how the plot will go but you are wasting your efforts - just let it proceed, don't try to anticipate it and you will enjoy the story as much as I did. And the characters... each one of them comes alive in their own way - I was rather surprised by Laura whose point of view the story is told from. I have read many books, written by both male and female authors, where there is a female lead and in so many of the books I have to keep reminding myself that the lead character is a woman/girl but Nickson has done something with Laura that meant I never did have to remind myself. From Anna, the lesbian petrol head, to Steve, Laura's boyfriend and wannabe rock star, each one is a rounded character that I understood and either liked or didn't (in the case of the drug dealer).
Did I enjoy it? Yes, immensely and the ending was so right... even if it was a little disappointing. Would someone pass Laura a hankie please?
Publisher - Creative Content Limited
Genre - Murder Mystery
Buy Emerald City: 1 (Laura Benton mystery)
from Amazon
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