The Run-Out Groove

March 6, 2017
British author Cartmel’s entertaining second record-spinning mystery finds the eponymous hero, otherwise unnamed, living in London with Nevada Warren, who hired him in the series debut, 2016’s Written in Dead Wax. When John Drummond, who likes to be called Colonel, and Drummond’s companion, self-styled journalist Lucille Tegmark, call on the vinyl detective, they first express interest in a rare 45 rpm single, “All the Cats Love Valerian,” which they spotted on his blog. But this is just the lead-up to what the bickering couple really want: to hire him to investigate the disappearance of the infant son of Drummond’s notorious singer sister, Valerian, who committed suicide in 1967 around the time the boy went missing. Encouraged by Nevada, the vinyl detective takes on the case. Cartmel treats music and records seriously, plays his strange characters for laughs, and provides a bit of danger and some unexpected twists in this affectionate nod to the vagaries of rock stardom. Agent: Tom Witcomb, Blake Friedmann Literary, Film & TV Agency (U.K.).

March 15, 2017
A tracker of rare records goes on the hunt to find out the truth behind the suicide of a 1960s legend and the kidnapping of her child in the second outing of Cartmel's (Written in Dead Wax, 2016) series.The inadvertent sleuth known as the Vinyl Detective is hired by the brother of a casualty of the '60s London rock scene to find an ultrarare 45 attributed to his sister. The track is said to contain a secret message which has been rumored to be a black-magic incantation. The detective's client wants to hear what is actually on the disc so as to remove a smear from his sister's reputation. He also expects the detective to find the singer's missing son. Soon the hero and his main squeeze find themselves encountering legendary photographers and the not-so-legendary veterans of the dead singer's time. Part of the fun of the series is the obsessiveness of record collectors, the contradictions between the mundane places in which they hunt their treasures--charity shops, church bazaars--and the sophisticated sound systems they have set up to play what they find. At times the book tips a bit too much into vinyl wonkiness, leaving the reader on the outside of the joke. And Cartmel seems unsure whether he wants to write an essentially feel-good series or whether he wants to go for something darker and more memorable. Still, the Vinyl Detective is proving to be a very amenable companion to have on a treasure hunt. This is one vinyl nerd you won't mind spending time with.

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 15, 2017
When last we saw the jazz-loving Vinyl Detective (Written in Dead Wax, 2016), he was doing what he does best: finding rare LPsvinyl only, of course. That case came with an attendant mystery involving the circumstances surrounding the recording of a jazz pianist's lost album, but this time everything is backward: the rare album has already been found, and it kicks off the case, a missing person this time, not a missing record. And it's rock, not jazz. The cult rock star Valerian killed herself shortly after her last album was released, and after her death, her baby vanished. But was Valerian really murdered, and what happened to the child? The Vinyl Detective is hired to find the answers, despite his protestations that he finds records not people. So begins another goofy, thoroughly endearing hipster romp, starring a just-zany-enough cast of vintage-loving Londoners: the hero, of course, and his even more obsessed cohort Tinkler, crave vinyl; his girlfriend, the fetching Nevada, goes for vintage clothes; and let's not forget their cab-driver pal, the equally fetching Clean Head, who gets all tingly over rare Penguin Classics. Great premise, great fun. Keep 'em coming.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)