Saturday, April 19, 2025

Book Review: Underscore (The Vinyl Detective #8)


Italy is known for some of the greatest (and grooviest) music ever committed to vinyl, including a rich diversity of soundtracks. One of the composers of these was Valerius Passeri. No one disputes that Passeri was a genius. The argument is whether or not he was a murderer.

Passeri’s granddaughter Chloe has come to England to hire the Vinyl Detective. The mastertapes of the albums have been destroyed and she needs immaculate vinyl copies to provide the source for a series of reissues. She wants to preserve her grandfather’s heritage and also to clear his name.

The Vinyl Detective’s real job will be to find out who actually committed a murder, over half a century ago, in Swinging London. But the real killer is not enchanted with the notion of being exposed. And, having killed once before, they see no problem in doing so again.

Underscore, the eighth Vinyl Detective novel by Andrew Cartmel, was published April 15, 2025, from Titan Books.

I am a big fan of this series and its author (see my earlier reviews) and was very excited to dive into another of his mysteries.

The novel starts out, as a lot the author's mysteries do, with quite a bit of expositional dialogue delivered by the person hiring our protagonists. This is the most direct way to get the gang involved in the case, and it is always done with giving the reader a complete sense of who all the characters are (through their mannerisms, their words, etc.). It is the level-setting for the story to go forward.

Once again, Cartmel is able to weave an engrossing narrative that sprinkles in characters from former tales (thus continuing the worldbuilding) while also keeping the danger constantly in striking distance. The story moves along at a steady pace; I was fully caught up in it all. This was an enjoyable addition to the series.

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