Rock & Roll Never Forgets: Book #1 of the Jp Kinkaid Chronicles

Do you love rock 'n' roll? Do you play air guitar with your favorite tunes? Do you love a good mystery? This is the book for you. Great musicians never waste a note; Deborah Grabien never wastes a word. Even if you didn't answer "yes" to all the questions above, if you love fine writing, this is a book for you. I spent several years in and around the California rock 'n' roll scene of the late '60s/early '70s, and none of the backstage detail rings false or hollow. The characters don't either; they have their talents and their flaws, their virtues and their vices. It's said that it's never too late to have a happy childhood; it's never too late to grow up, either, and that process is one of several things that make this book a good bit more than a sex, drugs & rock 'n' roll potboiler. The only way Ms Grabien disappoints me is that she doesn't write as fast as I can read, and so I spend a good deal of time in unrequited lit-lust. A new book from her presents me with a dilemma -- read it one or two gulps, like a kid with a bucket of ice cream and no witnesses, or take one chapter at a time, like someone who's been given a small box of exquisite chocolate truffles? Either way, it's over too soon, and the pining for the next begins.

Rock and Roll Never Forgets may market itself as a murder mystery, but really this is a book about love and care and coping. The murder investigation provides the impetus for the revelation of the histories of some deeply developed characters, for the telling of a love story that opens in medias res, and bringing it to pleasing resolution. That said, with the murder investigation as the driving force, the story whips along, never getting bogged down in details - the reader is constantly enticed to turn the page. Grabien nails her settings - she not only knows what it is to be in the scene, she knows to what it is to live in the now, and with the disease of which she writes. It gives the book a literary timelessness. Grabien has crafted that rarest of gems, a murder mystery that you will want to reread even after you know who the murderer is.

For anyone who's fantasized about what being part of a big rock band is like, this is for you. For anyone who likes a good mystery, this is for you. For anyone who likes strong characters with vibrant voices, this is for you. And for anyone who likes a believable, long-term love story that only keeps growing, this is definitely for you.

Seriously, the video promo [...] and it will give you a really good idea of the pace, content and characters in this book. Watch it on high quality, and turn up the volume because the music is great. Rock and Roll Never Forgets is a character-driven novel in which you see the mystery actually having an impact on who these people are, and how they behave. In some ways it is a coming of age story for the protagonist, JP Kinkaid, who begins to face his past and take responsibility for his behavior. It is also a love story, between JP and his long-time partner Bree, as they face the problems in their relationship history and recommit to a future together. Besides all that, it is a rollicking good read with mystery, excitement, and music scenes which make you feel as though you are in the room and make you want to go buy the album. This series promises to be very different from Grabien's Haunted Ballad series (see New-Slain Knight: The Haunted Ballad Series), as different as rock music is from folk music, but with the same deft ability to create characters that readers want to know better, and the same uncanny ability to bring music - performance and creation - to life on the page.