Deader Than Disco

The Philadelphia Inquirer gave rave reviews to David Hiltbrand's Deader Than Disco, and this book proved to be delightfully funny. Hiltbrand is a feature writer for The Inquirer, and has written for a number of publications as an arts, music and tv critic. He uses this base of knowledge to create a novel in the mystery genre. Jim McNamara is an unlicensed private investigator who specializes in cases involving the music and entertainment business. Sometimes he's required to put out brush fires, and other times, raging infernos. Rock star Angel Chiavonne is accused of murdering an up and coming NBA player. McNamara is hired by Angel's staff to investigate. But Angel refuses to talk to McNamara and then, vanishes into thin air. McNamara is then forced on a road trip trying to track down Angel, using clues she's mentioned from song lyrics and titles. The private eye suspects that Angel is not running from the police, but is actually fearful of the real killer. When I first started reading Deader Than Disco, I was rather put off by the not-so-thinly disguised takeoff on Madonna. Hiltbrand steals her story, her childhood, her friends, her musical career and even her ex-husband. But I found myself forgiving the author because his narrative is so perceptive and so hysterical. We can just imagine McNamara arguing with the real Madonna about who is the better singer--her or Emmylou Harris. McNamara chooses Emmylou "because her music is beautiful and artistic and honest and yours is plastic and commercial and fake." Hiltbrand has a good grasp of the superficial, self-serving world of entertainment, and he can be a ruthless critic. While he uses pseudonyms for Madonna, Sean Penn, Rosie O'Donnell, etc., he's not afraid to name names and dish the dirt on others. Some of his best observations are not appropriate for a book review. He calls Hugh Grant "a fop who does all his acting with his teeth, his accent and his fretlock." He also wonders how "Sandra Bullock ever became a movie star." Hiltbrand reminds me a little of Carl Hiaasen without being quite so over-the-top. Hiltbrand published another book prior to Deader Than Disco that also uses McNamara as his protagonist, and you can bet I'll be reading it before long. Too bad this terrific writer hasn't gotten more mainstream notice. Having been published only as a paperback, you can get a great book for a small price.

Only 2 books into this series and Hiltbrand's "rock & roll detective" Jim McNamara already seems like a best sort of friend: savvy, sarcastic, yet hard-boiled enough to let you know he means business. This novel is a terrifically sustained mystery/critique of Madonna--'scuse me, "Angel"--a pop diva so arrogant in her power, she seems easily capable of murder. And when a body turns up dead, McNamara is hired to find out just how far Angel--or one of her mansion-full of money-grubbing hangers-on--will go to stoke Angel's legend. In deftly juggling a house filled with suspects, Hiltbrand's puzzler is Agatha Christie meeting Lawrence Block for a blue-eyed soul duet. Hiltbrand, who also used to be People Magazine's TV critic, works in a lot of shrewd media satire, such as a scene in which Angel does one of those spin-the-scandal, "exclusive" TV interviews (readers: pick up the Mark Twain salute here--see? this author is sharp!). The story works as a fleet thriller while containing more barbed, funny music criticism than a year's-worth of "Rolling Stone"s or "Spin"s. I anxiously await the third McNamara mystery, with the hope that he'll tackle hiphop next time around.