ROCK & ROLL NEVER FORGETS

An aging rock star and his live-in lady become involved in a murder.

John “JP” Kinkaid plays the guitar in Blacklight, a wildly successful British rock band with more than a passing resemblance to the Rolling Stones. Although still married to drug-addicted Cilla, he’s lived for 25 years with Bree Godwin, a very private person who’s supported him through drug and alcoholic addiction and a diagnosis of MS. Their good life in San Francisco is shaken up by unauthorized biographer Perry Dillon. Since Blacklight has limited Dillon’s access, band members are doubly shocked when he’s found murdered backstage at Madison Square Garden. Bree, who rarely goes on tours, is a person of interest to NYPD Homicide Detective Patrick Ormand because she discovered the body. The crisis forces JP to take a long look at the life he’s been leading, and he doesn’t like what he sees. He realizes that Bree has always supported him while he took her for granted, even returning to Cilla several times for short periods when she begged for his help. Something in the background of the other equally impure band members may be the motive for Dillon’s murder.

The author of the Haunted Ballad series (New-Slain Knight, 2007, etc.) comes up with something worlds apart but equally pleasing: a deft mystery nicely integrated with a fascinating backstage look at a rock star’s life.