Murder on Tour: A Rock'N'Roll Mystery - Hardcover

Ageless DJ Clark offers a lot of rock 'n' roll lore, too much of it name- and song-dropping, while his co-authorPaul Engleman writing under a pseudonym ( Catch a Fallen Angel )gives us a so-so plot and thin characterizations. Narrator Del Barnes, a one-hit rock burnout pulling himself together as a reporter for a new (1979) music magazine, describes the emergence of Roots, a hot new group touring to promote its first album. The band's stars are young guitarist Kid Lee and his uncle Jack "The Knife" Mitchell, who uses switchblades as drumsticks. Trouble besets them, emanating from the producer's sons, one a nasty singer, the other a nasty manager. At the first concert, in Minneapolis, the manager dies of a drug overdose, though his family insists he never did drugs. At the second concert, in Madison, Wis., the singer is crushed to death by a huge speaker. When a cop tells Del that a band member has implicated him, the journalist turns sleuth. Eventually he comes up with a 20-year-old vow of revenge generated by an unpleasant music-biz scam. There's more violence and death before the predictable climax and an ending dazzling in its sentimentality. Author tour.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.