he conclusion of Blacklight’s exhausting Book of Days tour finds guitarist JP Kinkaid recuperating at home in San Francisco. As JP’s local band, the Fog City Geezers, plan gigs at Marin County’s 707 Club, the club is put up for sale. Blacklight, seeing an opportunity to preserve a classic venue, acquires the majority stake.
But the minority ownership comes with strings attached. There are troubling questions about the source of the stake money. There’s prickly, unpredictable promoter Norfolk Lind, whose son Curtis is romantically involved with Blacklight band baby Solange Hedley, now in cooking school in San Francisco. And Lind’s partner, Esther Woodley, has some dark history of her own with JP’s wife, Bree.
The Geezers celebrate the opening of the newly refurbished 707 with a private show. But when the club is destroyed by arson, Blacklight’s new security chief, retired homicide cop Patrick Ormand, must dig deep into the local music scene’s murky past to find the truth.
Deborah Grabien is a world traveller, retired medieval historian, and lifelong rocker chick. Her short fiction, reviews, and essays can be seen in many diverse venues.
There’s a lot of stuff one wants to know about rock and roll. What do they do at home? How do those jam sessions start – and end? What do they think of new talent? How do rock heroes get Stuff Done? JP Kinkaid, of Blacklight, and the Fog City Geezers, is pushing 60 and dealing with ms and a pacemaker, but the center of his being is still and always making music, and Bree, his wife. While this is, as always, a rock and roll murder mystery, that is only part of what JP recounts for us in his own completely engaging voice: the business of the end of a tour, the beginning of a recording session, noodling about with his fellows and guitars. We see Bree, fierce, protective, a professional caterer and his partner of 30 years, dealing with her own health issues and some long-buried pain. This volume also summarizes – brilliantly - a lot of what has gone before, but you absolutely want to start with Rock & Roll Never Forgets so you don’t miss a single note. The sexual heat is always understated but passionately evoked, and if you want to know what it feels like to make that music, come here right now, and turn it up loud.
Book #6 in the series and I keep wondering why no one has thought to make this series into movies? A bit disappointed in the conclusion to the "murder" and more than a little tired of Bree-still, I layer around all morning and gave myself a headache just to finish!
"The conclusion of Blacklight’s exhausting Book of Days tour finds guitarist JP Kinkaid recuperating at home in San Francisco. As JP’s local band, the Fog City Geezers, plan gigs at Marin County’s 707 Club, the club is put up for sale. Blacklight, seeing an opportunity to preserve a classic venue, acquires the majority stake. But the minority ownership comes with strings attached. There are troubling questions about the source of the stake money. There’s prickly, unpredictable promoter Norfolk Lind, whose son Curtis is romantically involved with Blacklight band baby Solange Hedley, now in cooking school in San Francisco. And Lind’s partner, Esther Woodley, has some dark history of her own with JP’s wife, Bree. The Geezers celebrate the opening of the newly refurbished 707 with a private show. But when the club is destroyed by arson, Blacklight’s new security chief, retired homicide cop Patrick Ormand, must dig deep into the local music scene’s murky past to find the truth."
JP and Bree are back in San Francisco after the health scares from the latest Blacklight tour. Although JP still is playing sometimes with his local band, the Fog City Geezers, mainly he is focused on family - both nuclear and musical. As well as the business of music. Another winner.
Yes, there is a mystery in each of the Kinkaid chronicles, but I really don't read these anymore for the mystery. I want to revisit JP, as well as the sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. Although, befitting reality, the drugs these days are those for MS and diabetes.... Ms Grabien creates a setting that I enjoy (despite the odd murder or two in each book) with some insights into what it must be to be a high profile musician.
This was fantastic! I was so afraid that the Book of Days would be the last one because of JP's health issues, and now there are three more to come --- great job Ms. Grabien!