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.

Book Review: Noise Floor (the Vinyl Detective #7)

Lambert Ramkin aka Imperium Dart, techno trickster and ambient music wizard of the 1990s, has gone walkabout, disappearing from his rather palatial home in Kent. This isn’t the first time he’s pulled a vanishing act, but he’s never been gone so long before and his wife — wives, actually; it’s complicated — are worried and hire the Vinyl Detective to find the old rascal.

They theorise that wherever the missing man is, he won’t be able to resist turning up at a record fair somewhere in search of 12-inch white label acid house singles, which he collects compulsively. And no one knows the world of record fairs better than the Vinyl Detective. They’re not wrong, but once our hero finds the wandering Lamb the trouble really begins — including terrifying mind-fucks with a side order of, if things break the wrong way, mass murder.

Book Review: Attack and Decay (The Vinyl Detective #6)

It starts with a perfectly normal evening in, except for the corpse-faced gentleman dressed all in black, with a crow on his shoulder, staring into the house, of course. And the visit from Owyn Wynter, head of Whyte Ravyn Records, who needs the Detective’s unique skills.

So begins an all-expenses-paid trip to Trollesko, Sweden for the Detective, Nevada, Tinkler and Agatha to track down a copy of the debut album from demonic metal legends, Storm Dream Troopers. Condemned by the church and banned on release, Attack and Decay is a legendary record.

But their trip to the homelands of Nordic noir is quickly thrust into a world of intrigue as the Detective closes in on the deal, the band unexpectedly converge on the peaceful town, and worse, their trip somehow coincides with a visit from Stinky Stanmer. Soon the bodies start piling up, and the Vinyl Detective is the only one who can solve the case.

Book Review: The Vinyl Detective - Low Action

This is the fifth and latest book in the Vinyl Detective mystery series. In this one, our record aficionado protagonist and his girlfriend Nevada are hired to find a rare pressing of the first album by the all-female punk rock band Blue Tits. However, that band's former lead singer Helene Hilditch also has been the target of several murder attempts.