Review: "The Vinyl Detective" by Andrew Cartmel (english)

Für ein Projekt der Bookstagrammerin @alyssaisreading habe ich dieses Review nochmal etwas überarbeitet und auf englisch übersetzt. Hier findet ihr das Review auf deutsch.

The first time I heard about this book was in an interview with the author Andrew Cartmel in the german Doctor Who podcast 'Whocast'. The latest work of the former Doctor Who Script Editor is called 'The Vinyl Detective -Written in Dead Wax. It was published on May 10^th this year by Titan Books.

Here's a short blurb:

"He is a record collector - a connoisseur of vinyl, hunting out rare and elusive LPs. Some end up on his turntable, some are sold at a handsome profit, and all sound a hell of a lot better than any digital recording.
His business card describes him as the "Vinyl Detective" and certain people take this more literally than others. Like the mysterious woman who wants to pay him a large sum of money to find a priceless lost recording - on behalf of a wealthy, shadowy and somewhat sinister client.
Given that he's just about to run out of cat food, this gets our hero's full attention. So begins a dangerous odyssey in search of the rarest jazz records of them all..."

Our nameless protagonist is sent to find a super rare jazz album in his first case. But he is not the only one looking for it and his opponents are not shy of using violence to get what they want. This record is part of a huge secret that threatens to shake the complete music industry to the chore...

This book is made very clever because it actually consists of two stories that build up on each other, like side A and B of a record if you like. There were no plotholes whatsoever and the pace of the story was never too fast or too slow. The characters off the 477 page book grew close to my heart very fast and I was suffering in each charity shop, at each record fair if they'd finally find the record.

'Written in Dead Wax' had this very 'homely' feeling for me right from the beginning; a feeling that I always get when I read or reread a favorite book (series) of mine, for example Harry Potter or Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. Speaking of Rivers of London, Cartmel is co-writing the comics that acompanion the books with his colleague Aaronovitch, who has, like Cartmel, nothing else than Doctor Who in his writing credits.

I guess it's no surprise that I'm giving 5/5 stars for this book. I'm really looking forward of the next part in this series.

So, if you like jazz music, listening to music on vinyl, cats, or simply enjoy a great crime novel, this is for you.

I recommend having a cup of coffee and some good jazz while reading this.

xo, lisa