Adult Review: Written in Dead Wax (Vinyl Detective #1)

Written in Dead Wax: the Vinyl Detective book 1.
Andrew Cartmel

Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5

The Vinyl Detective is a British record collector who brags that he can find any record and then gets his chance to prove it. A woman named Nevada shows up in his small town with one of his business cards; turns out she's working for a high-class record collector in Japan. And then the bodies start showing up...

I want to run to the office of my library's collection manager and demand that she order the rest of this series immediately. Andrew Cartmel is a playwright and screenwriter who has done work for Torchwood and the Midsomer Murders, both of which I adore, and he was a script editor for Doctor Who at one point. To say he's already proved himself capable of working a story-line would be an understatement.

The Vinyl Detective benefits from a lilting sense of humor, Cartmel's lightning quick dialog, and a cast of unruly misfits who still manage to get the job done. The characters were engaging and unique, though I was mildly troubled by the trope-ishness of his female characters. Nevada and Ree both redeem themselves by the end of the story and Fanny and Turk require no redeeming. Because they're cats.

The story does have two distinct parts, noted as "Side One" and "Side Two." They almost read like separate but interconnected novellas. This wasn't a problem for me, but it was a little startling since Side Two takes the protagonist from Britain to California in only a few phrases. I also spent a good portion of the last few rising-action chapters yelling at the characters for not seeing such an obvious conclusion. I had figured out the major story, though Cartmel did throw me for a loop in the final resolution of the story. The ending was satisfying, though demanded additional books because I'm not ready to leave this bunch digging in used vinyl crates and taking steam baths with cats.

A side note: I have not mentioned the main character's name because I noticed 2/3rds of the way through the book that he doesn't seem to have one. The whole story is told first-person and no one ever calls him by a legal name. He gets a few nicknames, but that's all. I was embarrassed about this because it took me so long to notice.

To sum up: I recommend this book highly for fans of mystery, technical geekery, Jazz history, and cats.

Adult Review: Death in D Minor

Review provided in return for ARC from Netgalley.




Death in D Minor 
Alexia Gordon

Overall Rating: 5/5
Plot: pending
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5

Death in D Minor is the second in Alexia Gordon's Gethsemane Brown mysteries and now that I've read a third of the second book, I know that I have to go back and read the first one, Murder in G Major. It's only 99 cents on Kindle so I can't rightly say no, either.

Gethsemane is an American professional musician living in Ireland. From the hints and references in the second book, her first adventure included occult studies, exploration, a heaping helping of sass (from both her and her ghostly companion) and I can't wait to read it. While I'm sure Death in D Minor stands on it's own for those who aren't obsessive about reading timeline books in order ((unlike me)), I'm itching to read about those adventures first hand. I'm already sucked into the story of this book, which centers on Gethsemane's attempts to foil an American hotel hot shot, who intends to buy the music-historically important cottage which she current rents. Add to that background sass-fest (complete with Trump nose-thumbing) Gethsemane's brother-in-law, a museum curator specializing in antique textiles and a potential art forgery/theft ring. I really want to know what happens there, but I feel a visceral, driving need to read the first book first.

So... it's an incomplete review, but still a rave! I didn't finish but only because I am driven to read the series in order. This series is definitely going on my recommended purchases list for our library collection.