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Rock and Roll Never Forgets: A JP Kinkaid Mystery | 
 enlarge | Author: Deborah Grabien
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $8.79
You Save: $16.16 (65%)
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Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 862234
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 7.3 x 0.4
ISBN: 0312379994
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312379995
ASIN: 0312379994
Publication Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New Hardcover With Dustjacket exactly as pictured; In stock for fast shipping; Satisfaction is Always guaranteed!
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Product Description
The last thing the members of Hall of Fame rock & roll band Blacklight need to hear is that ruthless tabloid biographer Perry Dillon is planning a tell-all history of their group. The issue hits hardest for English ex-pat guitarist JP Kinkaid; with his history of heroin addiction and deportation, his estranged wife, and his long-term relationship with a girl he met when she was a teenager, JP has the most to lose. Dealing with his multiple sclerosis doesn’t make things any easier. When he sits down with Dillon, JP’s main concern is to preserve both his own privacy and that of Bree Godwin, his fiercely protective longtime girlfriend. But it’s obvious from the first question that Dillon is digging deep. And he’s not planning to stop until he hits rock bottom. Dillon’s looking for trouble, the kind of trouble that garners publicity and sells books. What he finds is the kind of trouble someone will go to any length to cover up, and that includes murder. Opening night at Madison Square Garden encores with a corpse in JP’s dressing room, leaving Blacklight in the middle of a media frenzy---and Bree as homicide lieutenant Patrick Ormand’s prime suspect. Rock & Roll Never Forgets, the first JP Kinkaid mystery, offers an all-access pass to how musicians work, live, and love.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Is JP really a guy? December 7, 2008
SoldierBoy (Columbia, MD USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
While the plot and execution to this book are OK, there are two issues that take away a lot of enjoyment for me. First, author just piles in detail about bands and guitars and touring in such quantities, probably to make it seem 'authentic', that for those of us like me, who know zippo about the music biz, the book was just cluttered with excess of useless, excessive info. Maybe some people care that when JP switches from one guitar body to another one, the model and maker of both guitars all get included, but its way more than necessary. Someone breaks a string, the size and type of string gets noticed, to whom the guitar gets passed and the brand of the new guitar gets mentioned out. Too much stuff to just jam in the authenticity. OK, the author's an insider, now shut up already.
Second, the protagonist comes across as the character of a man written by a woman. Two parts I remember very distinctly. In the first section of the book, JK is propositioned by a attractive young girl - and he notices that her shoes were all wrong for her, which makes him feel sorry for her. Bing, bong alarm bells going off here. No functioning male, who isn't in the fashion biz and who actually thinks of females as sex partners will notice the shoes on any female who's propositioning him, unless the shoes are 4 inch stilettos and black patent something. He might notice [...] , legs, tight clothes, sweat in cleavage, heavy breathing - but whether the shoes are good for her? Nope, unless this JK is a gay guy trying to stay closeted, fashion evaluations are not the basis for what he sees.
Second part. The protagonist talks about his clothes, how he only wore flashy stuff to pander to his wife and now he wears plain black clothes - which get described. Bong, bong again. To all the guys I know, clothes are to keep you warm and, perhaps, make you look good - clothes are generally not the subject of conceptual thought or if they are, it is at a very low level.
This author is a female trying really hard to be a guy who is into the music biz really hard. Maybe she is all correct about the music biz, but as a guy, she really comes across as a female trying to pass.
It's a guy thing, she doesn't understand.
A fantastic read! October 24, 2008
Barbara S. (Clinton, CT USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is one of the best books I have read in a long, long time. The author's words just flow and you are totally caught up in the story. For anyone that lived through the Rock & Roll Era, it is a must read - for anyone else, if you like a good coming of age, romance and mystery - this is a book not to miss. It is also the first in a series, so read it while you have the chance.
<> September 8, 2008
Pieter B (Los Angeles, CA United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
Hard to beat August 18, 2008
richardf8 (Saint Paul, MN)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
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.
Another great mystery from a great writer July 22, 2008
S. Johnson (Washington, DC)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've been reading Ms. Grabien's novels since The Weaver and the Factory Maid. Her characters are always fully developed and nuanced and their feelings and motivations always make the story more interesting. Rock and Roll Never Forgets is no exception. The combination of strength and vulnerability in Bree is part of what makes the story so interesting. I know that JP Kinkaid is the main character, but she seems to drive the story.
I also really liked the descriptions of backstage and the real workings of a megaband. I've only experienced it from the other side of the stage, so it was fun to know what those people you glimpse in the wings are doing.
I read this book in one sitting. It was a quick read, but not fluffy. Kept me guessing until the end. Highly recommend it!
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