by Daniel Weizmann
SYNOPSIS
From the author of the acclaimed The Last Songbird, Lyft driver-turned-sleuth Adam Zantz returns in a neo-noir dive into the dark side of LA’s rock scene . . .
Adam Zantz is still driving for Lyft, struggling to make ends meet, when his beloved former piano teacher makes a deathbed request: He wants Zantz to prove his son’s innocence in a decades-earlier murder case.
There doesn’t seem to be much hope of solving such a cold case - until Zantz stumbles onto a test pressing of a never-released vinyl LP. The recording is of a high school garage band lost to the tides of the Paisley Underground, the acid-fueled early ’80s music scene that spawned the Bangles and the Three O'Clock.
Down the psychedelic rabbit hole Adam falls, tracing the band's journey from the middle class garage to the precipice of fame—a twisted tale marked by crooked DJs, elder-scammers, wellness hucksters, a teen cult, and the woman who held the key to the band’s triumph and ruin.
One part Raymond Chandler, one part Ziggy Stardust, Cinnamon Girlis both an indelible, moving portrait of Los Angeles, and a suspenseful tale of greed, lust, betrayal, and the hidden price of teenage yearning.
REVIEW
Cinnamon Girl is the second in the Pacific Coast Highway Mystery series featuring the aspiring PI - Adam Zantz. While studying for his PI qualification and providing a Lyft taxi service to make ends meet, Adam is contacted by an old family friend, Mr Elkaim, with a request from his deathbed. Years earlier, when Adam and Elkaim's son Emil were younger, Emil was arrested and accused of a drugs-related murder (with Emil subsequently dying in prison). All Mr Elkaim wants to do before he dies is prove his son's innocence. Feeling the pressure, Adam agrees to help and begins a search which takes him down a dangerous path to discover the truth.
This book is the perfect summer murder mystery but it's also quite difficult to define. It's set in the present day but has a retro, nostalgic vibe. The setting of the book is Los Angeles, but it has that small-town American mystery feel and, despite it being a story about a murder, I was really taken in by the music element of the story, the records, the dark side of the music industry and the price you might pay for fame. I guess I would call Cinnamon Girl a modern noir with it's almost lazy quality set against the gritty heat of California.
Adam is such a great protagonist, and he is quite a change from the moody, troubled detectives you hear a lot about in crime fiction. A laid-back but hardworking guy who obviously has good instincts and the natural ability to talk his way into finding information. I got the impression in this second book that there is a lot more to learn about Adam's past and the things he has been through - I'm really hoping this is explored more in another instalment. A fantastic story full of contrast - light and dark, right and wrong, dead or alive...
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Daniel Weizmann is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Billboard, the Guardian, AP Newswire, and more. Under the nom de plume, Shredder, Weizmann also wrote for the long running Flipside fanzine, as well as LA Weekly, which once called him “an incomparable punk stylist.” His first mystery, The Last Songbird, released last May, was described by three-time Edgar winner T. Jefferson Parker as "rock noir at its best...it sneaks up on you like a hookline, and when it's over, you can't get it out of your head." Daniel lives in Los Angeles, California.
Thanks to Melville House @melvillehouse - Nikki Griffiths @NikkiTGriffiths and Daniel Weizmann @danielweizmannfor the opportunity to read and review.
Fiction: Noir / Crime / Mystery
ISBN: 978-1685891152
Paperback: 336 pages
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