Interesting take on crime fiction

I enjoyed this book and liked how it interconnected with the characters from the Vinyl Detective series.
Looking forward to more.

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Great at times, very odd at others.

This had the feel of a ten hour short story! Not a lot actually happened but there was much detail along the way. It was very much an Andrew Cartmel novel(la?) in the Vinyl Detective style and at times had me chuckling because he was writing at his funniest and his best. Lots of alliteration, lots of ironic observances etc. At other times though, the strangeness of the central character having such delusional morals and self belief was quite unsettling, since you needed to buy into her motivations and justification to keep going. Eventually I did, and by the end there were some redeeming characteristics starting to develop for her. I seem to remember that Nevada was not an entirely sympathetic character in the first Vinyl book and she is likeable now, so maybe the same will happen with Cordelia.

There was so much to like though that I have to come out on the positive side and say that I will look forward to the next one, especially if it brings the Vinyl Det characters back into it, like this one does. The whole Vinyl Det series is like 'The Beiderbecke Affair' in tone and content, with implausible coincidences and irritable but likeable characters all over the place. I'm happy to suspend my disbelief when the effect is as enjoyable as this. The downside though, is that sometimes the unpredictability becomes predictable, so I suspect we will have to endure CC again because his story was rather weakly left unresolved.

A number of other reviews for this book have been less favourable than mine, it seems. I admit that I was looking forward to another Vinyl Detective book but I am happy to report that having the characters appear in cameos here treads water well enough and maybe allows Andrew Cartmel to keep the characters alive and keep things fresh before returning to centralise them at some point in the next couple of years. Extend the Vinyl Det universe with another Cordelia book, please.

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1 person found this helpful

A letdown

I was really looking forward to this book but sadly, it's disappointing.
As a stand-alone, it would get maybe a 4, as a part of a series, it gets 2. There is an awful lot of padding and I would much rather stick with the old gang than get to know Stinky's sister. Hopefully, we'll get back to the groove with the next instalment.

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An interesting change of style and gender

I’ve read a few of the authors “Vinyl Detective” stories and was surprised to find the change of both writing style and character. A simple tale, light but fun and beautifully described. A great beach read

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Amusing but detailed

Others have said it well, but it did feel like a long short story. So much detail inside the mind of one central character, and not loads of plot.
Ended up liking her though and the relationship with Edwin.
Great idea to use same cosmology as Vinyl Detective. Let's hope for even more cross over in the next one.

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1 person found this helpful

The wit and originality of the author

I have read all of Andrew Cartmel Vinyl Detective books. I liked the characters and the detail about the music industry, particularly the vinyl history. The mystery and the drama also made for good reading (or listening).
I was initially put off buying into this next series because a reviewer had said it was much the same but with books and it was slow. I am so glad Audible included it with my membership because I could not disagree more with that review. I love the way Cartmel has included some of the vinyl detective characters (on the periphery) yet the main characters in this series are original and have so much depth. Again, I am learning things about paperbacks I would never have bothered to learn, but I appreciate it. I look forward to the next book and hopefully more in the series.
Good job by the narrator, Olivia Dowd too.
Thanks again Andrew Cartmel.

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The bigger picture.

I like how Andrew Cartmel writes. Naturally. I expected, like someone else, a stand alone novel and was pleased to meet up with characters from The Vinyl Detective at intervals. Giving us a look from a different angle at the people. I thought more was going to be made of the links from the last couple of books, but that didn’t happen. I was put off on reading the synopsis about Cordelia being a thief. You usually like to admire the primary character in the books you read but I must admit I warmed to her as the story progressed. The main point to latch onto I think, if that’s the object of this sideways step, is that you really don’t know people until you have something in common. I agree there seemed to be a considerable amount of bathtime fun. At least she was a very clean heroine. On the whole I enjoyed it, if not quite on the edge of my seat as with his previous books, it was fun, and well read.

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2 people found this helpful

Enjoyable but not his best.

Decent story but a bit padded, testament to the writers skill that he manages to make the reader warm to a character that doesn’t really have a single redeeming feature. Prefer the Vinyl crew.

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3 people found this helpful

its a long, short story

I'm quite happy with a new Andrew Cartmel book, and delighted to have overlaps with The Vinyl Detective series but there was a lot of unnecessary introspection by our new, main character.

I'm interested in more of this series (I'm just about to download book 2), but there really needs to be less flowery waffle and more story next time, please.

Narration was clear, but the narrator needs to learn to pronounce several English words; notoriety being the one that stuck out as the worst.

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Sadly not for me

I am a huge fan of the Vinyl Detective Series, and I know there’s some cross over, but it’s not enough. This just doesn’t work for me. Didn’t really invest in the characters, story dragged and didn’t really engage. It’s ok-ish, but won’t be buying any others if this becomes a series.

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