Noise Floor (Vinyl Detective, 7)

Andrew Cartmel
Titan Books, 19 March 2024
Available as: PB, 376pp, audio, e   
Source: Purchased
ISBN(PB): 9781803367965

The Vinyl Detective is back!

I was afraid that, with the coming of The Paperback Sleuth, the Detective might take a bit of a rest but happily it's not so (though I want more of Cordelia's adventures too - and equally happily, I think another instalment is coming later this year).

This time, the nameless Detective and his pals are investigating the disappearance of Lambert Ramkin, a wealthy DJ and techno creator who was big in the 90s. Hired by Ramkin's wives (plural) to track him down, they soon realise that danger is stalking them... 

Does Ramkin want not to be found so much that he's threatening their lives? 

Or is that somebody else?

As with all of this series, much of the fun is simply the joy de vivre of the Detective, his girlfriend Nevada, their friend Clean Head and of course, Tinkler. I'm quite pleased that Tinkler's gradually moved from being just irritating to definitely loveable, if still irritating. The book is punctuated by their enjoyment of lunches, dinners, drinks and other substances and every mission to recover Ramkin includes details of hotels, trips to nice towns and plenty of gossip.

Those details really make this series come alive and are essential to a Vinyl Detective novel, and there are enough of them to satisfy although I felt that Cartmel had pared things back a bit compared to previous stories, both in the day tripping and in the plot. This is very much focussed on recovering Ramkin, rather than being a quest for rare vinyl which then takes an odd turn. There is a kind of side-plot involving creating a "Village of Vinyl" inspired by Hay on Wye, the original "town of books" but that doesn't feature much until the final part of the story. That made it easier to focus on the main issue - which for me counterpointed the lighter bits and made them more enjoyable.

At the same time we don't escape the dark side of things. Somebody seems to be riffing off The Magus, and there are decidedly weird events here including en entire time-slipped 90s rave, complete with police raid at the end. (If you've read Fowles's book you'll get the comparison). And, while most of the book is Stinky Stanmer-free, he isn't wholly missing and manages to do the dirty on our heroes as always. (Yes, I know, but you'd miss him if he never showed, wouldn't you?)

Stinky does though get his comeuppance in an action filled conclusion.

All in all a cracking instalment of this series and this should be high on your "To Read" list.

For more information about Noise Floor, see the publisher's website here.