Review - Underscore by Andrew Cartmel

Underscore (The Vinyl Detective, 8)

Andrew Cartmel
Titan Books, 15 April 2025
Available as: PB, 416pp audio, e   
Source: Bought
ISBN(PB): 9781803367989

It's always great to see a new instalment of Andrew Cartmel's Vinyl Detective series (or for that matter, an outing for his spiritual sister the Paperback Sleuth) and I'm especially chuffed because this one quotes Blue Book Balloon in its rundown of reviews. Perhaps I can finally call myself an influencer. 

Not that I am letting that sway me in giving my verdict here. Oh no. I can genuinely say that Underscore maintains the high standard of its predecessors, as the (still unnamed) Detective (who's getting sick of being called that, however, what will Cartmel do?) launches into a search for the soundtrack LP to Murder in London, a gory 1960s Italian film whose events seem to be echoed in modern London...

The Detective, and his girlfriend Nevada, have been commissioned to track down a pristine vinyl copy of the record - but also, if they can, to exonerate its composer, Loretto Loconsole, of murdering his lover during the film's production production. The killing, for which no-one was ever charged, hung over Loconsole's later career, but his granddaughter Chloë now wants to reissue the music - something hard to do if he's still under suspicion (and harder still if she doesn't have a decent copy of it).

The resulting investigation hits all the notes that a Vinyl Detective novel should. I get sheer pleasure from the way that in these novels Cartmel creates a believable, and frankly enviable, lifestyle for his shifting bunch of characters who lunch and drink their way around a beautifully realised corner of the West London suburbs. Yet there are dangers that follow them, and Underscore has some heart stopping moments. Someone is determined to stop Chloë vindicating her grandfather, or reissuing his music, or both. Cass and Desdemona, the grandkids of the murder victim, are also hanging around - they would bribe the Detective to desist if they could (Nevada's tempted, of course) but might they go further?

How to solve a nearly 60 year old mystery? How to find a copy of a recording which - due to the scandal attached - was never issued, with the discs rather being destroyed? How to stay alive while doing both?

It's a tightly written, action filled story (with breaks for those lunches, naturally) which kept me guessing. As ever, Cartmel fills the reader in on the finer points, in this case the giallo genre, the politics of the late 60s recording industry and the surprising fidelity of a pristine vinyl copy. (It's no coincident that the Detective is after vinyl, rather than vintage CDs or tapes). The result is an excellent addition to the canon, and a better knowledge of these essential matters. 

With another Paperback Sleuth novel due this year as well it's going to be a good year, I can already tell.

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

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.

#Review - Death in Fine Condition by Andrew Cartmel

Death in Fine Condition  
Andrew Cartmel
Titan Books, 6 June 2023 
Available as: PB, 336pp, audio, e  
Source: Purchased
ISBN(PB): 9781789098945

Fans of Cartmel's Vinyl Detective stories will feel at home with The Paperback Sleuth - not only does she (the Sleuth, Cordelia) live the same slightly raffish, hedonistic London lifestyle - there are plenty of descriptions of nice lunches and other activities here - but the story is set in the same universe, her path crossing with  those of familiar characters from the series.

The setup is thought slightly different. While the Detective tends to stumble on mysteries which sidetrack him from his vocation of sourcing rare records, pretty much everything that happens here arises form Cordelia's own, shall we call it, imaginative approach to property rights in the paperbacks which she craves (and deals in). We see this early when she's adding an author signature to a copy she plans to sell, but there's plenty more chicanery to come and it's this that places threatens Cordelia's safety, an outcome signalled several times in the book.

I loved Cordelia as a character, even if one can't approve of all (or much!) that she does. Her knowledge of classic pulp paperbacks is impeccable, as it her determination once she fixes on a goal. There's also a sense of naivety about what she might be getting into - Cartmel often lets the reader get a step or two ahead of her so there's the fun of seeing her catch up when things turn nasty and this does ramp up the tension. It's also fun seeing how she deals with several characters from Vinyl Detective, her relationships with them adding depth and nuance to the portrayal we're familiar with from those books. 

The Detective himself gets short shrift, dismissed as the unmemorable boyfriend of a woman that Cordelia rather fancies - as well as her passion for paperbacks, she's also got her eye an another woman, The Woman (do keep up!) who's seen, mysteriously, out and about as Cordelia goes about her business. She's as ruthless in that pursuit as she is with the books, the two strands providing plenty of entertainment, surprises and twists as the story moves towards its climax.

Overall, an engaging book which builds on the success of Vinyl Detective without simply becoming a cone of those stories.

For more information about Death in Fine Condition, see the publisher's website here.  

#Review - Attack and Decay by Andrew Cartmel

Attack and Decay (The Vinyl Detective, 6)
Andrew Cartmel
Titan Books, 17 May 2022
Available as: PB, 464pp, e, audio, 
Source: Purchased PB
ISBN(PB): 9781789098969

In this, the sixth adventure for the Vinyl Detective and his associates, the crew make an expedition to Sweden after the Detective is hired to test listen to a sought after record (the 'Attack and Decay' of the title). It's not in one of his favoured genres at all, a sort of Goth death metal thing, but a job's a job, the cats have to be fed and the wine bill won't pay itself. Plus the client is wealthy and willing to underwrite a trip for Nevada, Agatha and Tinkler as well, so off they all go.

Cartmel has some fun with the subsequent adventure, ticking off the tropes of Scandi noir ('Lonely murder Farmhouse. Check') even while nothing in particular seems to threaten. Rather, he sticks to the winning formula of these books which I'd characterise as a sort of cosy crime, with lots of food and drink. It's as important here which restaurant the crew lunch at, whether they are able to get good coffee or not and how comfortable the beds are as who is murdered or why. (Actually VERY important, as one of said restaurants introduces Tinkler to a young lady he hopes will make all his dreams come true - and no, I don't want to describe Tinkler's dreams, if you've read this series you will be able to imagine them).

The first half of the book is therefore largely occupied by this agreeable footling around, involving the four in their usual banter and introducing them to the small town they're visiting and to some of its eccentric residents. These include a priest who searches her back garden for the neighbour's dog's poo at night, marking it with a glow stick; a Swedish woman who only speaks in Mockney English, to the anguish of her husband; and the proprietor of a second hand store based in a former water tower. 

Then the murders start...

I rather pride myself on anticipating where things will go in crime fiction, but I was completely caught off guard here when a rather bizarre caper (garnished with the usual coincidences of the series) suddenly goes sideways and everything takes a turn for the gruesome. After that things get dark very fast, in a whirl of sinister crows, bizarre killings, and suspected poisoning. Can 'Attack and Decay" actually be cursed - as the Church, which tried to suppress it, claims? If so, what does it mean that the Detective has listened to it not only one, but four times?

The second part of the book, taking forward amidst spiralling danger and hair-raising escapes, is pretty much constant action, and highly satisfying, leading up to an action filled climax in which Tinkler is key (while he is still often annoying I think in this book he's brought into the fold rather more, as it were).

Overall, Attack and Decay will be great fun for readers who know and love the Detective and his friends, having followed them through their previous outings. It's a fine addition to the series.  If you haven't read the earlier books you should though go and do that before reading this one. 

For more information about Attack and Decay, see the Titan website here.

Review - The Vinyl Detective: Low Action by Andrew Cartmel

Low Action (The Vinyl Detective, 5)

Andrew Cartmel

Titan Books, 4 August 2020

Available as: PB
Source: PB, bought from Wallingford Bookshop
ISBN: 9781785659003

The band is back together again...

I'm a fan of Cartmel's Vinyl Detective series, so am pleased to report that this latest instalment is fully up to standard. The eponymous hero - we never learn his name - his girlfriend Nevada, embarrassing friend Tinkler, not to forget Agatha "Clean Head", are back and will potter round London and environs searching for rare records and solving crime in the process.

This time though, the crime comes upfront rather than as an adjunct to a record hunt - someone's trying to murder Helene "Howlin’ Hellbitch" Hilditch, guitarist from 80s all-female punk band The Blue Tits. The Vinyl Detective isn't too keen to get involved with murder again, but he's tempted by a side quest to find a copy of the Tits' rarer than rare debut album for a very generous fee - Eric Make Cloud is backing Helene - and off we go.

The search for murderer and record involves locating the surviving members of the group, their friends, and ex-colleagues (together with the band's roadie and Fanzine Frank, who's made a life's work of collecting everything to do with them). There's even an intriguing brush with a character I recognised from another series of books entirely. They're hoping to find who might have a reason to murder Helene - but it turns out easier to find someone who doesn't. In pursuit of the would-be killer, there's much rummaging in charity ships for records (the Detective) and once-cherished designer clothes (Nevada), eating out in pubs and tearooms, and exploring of the more interesting London suburbs.

...and close brushes with death. Because someone really, really wants a kill...

Compared to some of the previous books in the series, there's perhaps less emphasis on investigating and redressing a historical injustice - the mystery here is very much in the present - and it's clear that in focussing on the punk era,  the detective is well away from his favoured period and genre, but still, the task of tracing a disc - running down ex TV hosts, recording studio managers, and whoever else may have a whiff of the desired vinyl - is much the same. Cartmel has a gift for bringing you into his characters' world and making you want to stay there which simply makes this a joy to read. And we find out a bit more about Nevada's life and career.

It isn't gritty realism, by any means, but it's an assured, highly readable and fun story that builds on Cartmel's well-realised characters (even giving a positive, albeit small, role to Stinky Stanmer). These books paint a London you suspect isn't really there but you really, really wish was.

I hope this series will run and run.

For more information about Low Action, see the Titan website here.

Review - The Vinyl Detective: Flip Back by Andrew Cartmel

Design by Amazing15

Flip Back (The Vinyl Detective, 4)
Andrew Cartmel
Titan Books, 14 May 2019
PB, 425pp

I'm very grateful to Titan for sending me a free copy of Flip Back for review.

"He's the Vinyl Detective, a private detective with a very special set of skills: no matter how rare, no matter how elusive, if you're looking for a record he's the man to find it for you..."

This is the fourth adventure of The Vinyl Detective (we still don't know his name), his partner Nevada, and friends Tinkler (well, I say friend...) and Clean Head. Tracking down rare records is only the beginning: invariably the search leads them into danger, shady dealings, unsolved mysteries and danger.

I should declare myself from the start: I just love this series and I'm pleased it's still going strong (after all it does seem an unlikely premise...) Reading Flip Back reminded why I like these books so much. First, there's the strong setting. While the stories range all over the place - the Detective has visited Japan and the US, not to mention Kent - they are centred on London, display a familiarity with streets, frustrating London travel and have a certain London sensibility, an irreverence, a knowingness. That's where the Detective is at home, scouting record dealers and charity shops and working his dodgy contacts. It's not exactly the London of Holmes and Watson but as these stories open I always feel something of the same thrill, the same eagerness to know what's afoot, as I do read Conan Doyle.

I also like the portrayal of a group of friends who, despite their bickering, try to look out for each other in a crisis (even if, realistically, nobody is actually a hero here) and who are just... well, convincing. And of course the books are full of crises - described with a certain note of dark comedy, for sure, but, even so, often pretty desperate crises. The gang have grown together through the series. And they frequently have fun on their investigations, too, so that expeditions out of London to survey a location or interview a witness are just as much daytrips and likely to include a nice meal or an afternoon in a pub garden (which gives plenty of scope to discuss the case, of course).

Overall, I think these books have just the right balance between action, mystery and... well, life, I suppose. I like reading about life!

Anyway, back to Flip Back. As with the previous books, Cartmel keeps the story humming along. It all starts off with Tinkler this time, of all people, retaining our hero to track down a rare record. It's the first version of Wisht, the last album by notorious folk-rock group Black Dog (you must remember them? Maybe they were before your time).

The version they had withdrawn from sale and destroyed. Not the re-release - the original version. The one with the flip back cover...

Just why the record is so important to Tinkler* that he's actually prepared to pay good money to cover the costs of the search doesn't really matter. In these books, the quest is the thing, invariably bringing mayhem and exploring the shady margins of musical history. Sure enough, someone is soon following the gang, someone determined that the record won't be found - and who's prepared to take extreme steps to make sure it doesn't.  In previous books, there's been some hint or clue about the villain based on who approached the Detective in the first place and what their story was. Here, though, we know nothing about why Tinkler's sudden interested in Wisht has led to... well, to what it leads to.  There's only the record, and Black Dog (named after the Barghest, the spectral hound whose presence heralds a death).

Inevitably, then, the story takes the gang deep into the history of Black Dog. The group were famous for burning a million dollars on a remote island in the North Sea and after they split, most of them settled down there. To get to the bottom of what happened - and track down that missing record - we will need to follow to Halig Island (evading the ever annoying Stinky Stanmer). This being a Vinyl Detective book, and as Tinkler is financing the operation, it proves to be a stay with plenty of good food and fine wine (I love the way the Detective insists on only the best coffee, and Nevada wields her command of wine like a weapon: see a particular episode set in a pub called the Alexander von Humbolt, where knowledge of wine - or not - is used to convey so, so much about a character).

And there is no shortage of danger, double-dealing or unlikely turns.

Overall, Flip Back continues to do what these books do so well. It doesn't bring anything new or very different to the series, but that wasn't what I was looking for. Basically an enjoyable crime-tinged romp in the company of some sharp and enjoyable characters.

*Something to do with impressing a woman.

Review - Victory Disc by Andrew Cartmel

Cover design by Martin Stiff

Victory Disc (Vinyl Detective, 3)
Andrew Cartmel
Titan Books, 8 May 2018
PB, 432pp

I'm grateful to Titan for an advance copy of this book.

This is the 3rd in the series featuring the (unnamed) Vinyl Detective, his girlfriend Nevada, annoying best friend Tinkler, getaway driver Clean Head and, of course, cats Turk and Fanny. The setup is well established - the Vinyl Collector hunts down old records, and his commissions typically involve him in a historical mystery, which has enough echoes in the present to threaten considerable danger.

Victory Disc is no exception, but takes the gang out of their comfort zone (if being threatened, drugged, burgled or kidnapped can be so described) as the hunt is for even older and rarer records than before - specifically for wartime recordings of the RAF's Flare Path Orchestra, a band of serving airmen purportedly set up to compete with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. The Flare Path Orchestra wasn't, of course, real, the Miller band (of course) was. Yet Cartmel has an amazing knack for describing  (totally fictitious) music so convincingly that you're almost there, listening to it. Very evocative, as is the name Flare Path Orchestra itself which made me think of Terrance Rattigan's play Flare Path, also set against the background of bomber crews in the Second World War.

Of course there's a mystery to be unravelled here, the murder of a young woman, Gillian Gadon, during the war, for which a young RAF officer was hanged. (I strongly approved of the fact that in this story Nevada insists on using Gadon's name, making her more than simply an object of male violence). This backstory intertwines with a commission, in the present, by the wealthy Miss Honeyland, to hunt down any serviving records by the Orchestra whose leader was her father, "Lucky" Lucian Honeyland. (One slight gripe: Honeyland's is described as "Colonel" - not an RAF rank, I think). That sets The Vinyl Detective (or the Shellac Shamus, as Nevada describes him now that he's delving into the age of 78s) tracking down surviving members of the band, widening his knowledge of the wartime bombing campaign (at the heart of the book there is, among other things, a compassionate argument about the cruelty of that campaign and its effect both on German cities and on the aircrew themselves).

This is Cartmel at his best, sending the team off on a series of rackety day trips to obscure corners of Kent, portraying the foibles and varied lives of the surviving band/ squadron members while throwing in an eclectic gallery of record eccentric collectors, menacing thugs, murder historians and, inevitably, more cats (poor Abner...) It all moves pretty briskly and - another thing I like in these books - the crew behave intelligently, understanding (from previous adventures) that there may be danger out there. Not that this makes the book staid or boring - it has a pretty scary climax and the revelations that follow complete a satisfying story, bringing the crimes of the past right into the present and showing how evil persists. Indeed there is something of a sense of urgency to the story and a demand to question appearances and remain vigilant. Another strong theme is erasure, particularly of artists (that's a vein consistently explored in all these books).

In all this was an exciting and atmospheric mystery and a good addition to the Vinyl Detective's casebook. I note that a further instalment, Flip Back, is due in 2019 and I wish the anonymous record-finder and his partner plenty of good, fresh coffee and decent food in their next outing.

Final note: while Cartmel avoids using the Collector's name - how long can he keep that up? - he does use pronouns, so I'm not just falling into a lazy assumption that the character is male!

For more about the book see the publisher's website here.

Review - The Vinyl Detective: The Run-Out Groove

The Run-Out Groove (Vinyl Detective, 2)
Andrew Cartmel
Titan Books, 9 May 2017
PB, 416pp

I'm grateful to Lydia at Titan Books for sending me a copy of this.

The Vinyl Detective is back, accompanied by girlfriend Nevada, friends Tinkler, "Stinky" Stanmer and Clean Head and the cats, Fanny and Turk. If you've read the first part of these adventures you'll know what to expect - a search for a rare record crossing over into detective work about, in this case, a dead 60s popstar and her missing son,  peril, wisecracks and a tapestry of (mainly) London streets, housing estates and record shops.

The two books are very much in the same vein (perhaps this one is slightly less violent - though a key character does come to a sticky end in a pretty shocking way) and, with the setting and characters established, Cartmel has more time and space to develop their relationships: the Detective and Nevada are a touching couple and his bickering with Tinkler is fun.

Slightly less well defined are the clients in this case, Lucy Tegmark and John "the Colonel", the brother of the deceased star. They're pretty hostile to one another but I never quite got why. That said, I didn't warm to the Colonel anyway, especially after his pretty unpleasant response to a woman who is rather on the large side.

But. The client brings the mystery, the mystery is what drives this genre: here it's a devilish one with a real touch of tragedy. When Valerian died and her son disappeared, a bother and sister were left behind and they clearly never came to terms with the loss. Now, it's time to try and get closure. But there's someone out there who'd rather things were left open...

I liked the way, in this book, Cartmel has his protagonists actually learn from their experiences in the earlier. Yes, the atmosphere and the general setup is similar but they are determined not to get caught out as they did before (cue a lot of rather clever dialogue as they assess whether they really are, or aren't, residing in "Paranoia Heights". This may be connected with still being rather haunted by those experiences - the Detective himself certainly is early on in the story.

But of course history never repeats itself exactly. The threat here is rather different, and not obvious. I certainly didn't figure out who was behind until very late in the day: Cartmel weaves the story with so many red herrings and false turns that I don't think you will, either.

In short: an excellent continuation of the series. Give me more!

(By the way, Cartmel collaborates with Ben Aaronovitch on the Rivers of London comics. I think I saw a couple of RoL Easter eggs in here - perhaps you'll spot more....?)

Review: The Vinyl Detective - Written in Dead Wax

The Vinyl Detective: Written in Dead Wax
Andrew Cartmel
Titan Books, 10 May 2016
PB, ebook, 474pp
Source: Review copy from publisher

He is the record collector — a connoisseur of vinyl, hunting out rare and elusive LPs. His business card describes him as the “Vinyl Detective” and some people take this more literally than others...

They call him The Chef. You don't want to know why, but if you get in his way, you might find out.

I found this book the perfect confection of breakneck, page turning detective noir (or perhaps, detective gris?) on the one hand and absorbing, geeky exposition of a subculture on the other. The subculture is, of course, that of the vinyl record collector: despised by most until recently these records are now mainstream sought after items (you can buy them again at HMV!) But the world of obsessives, disc hunters and commercial middlemen is less well known and (on the evidence of this book) as varied and fascinating as any of the other niche cultures appealing to (mainly) male collectors. Think stamps, with much more storage space needed, or vintage bikes with less. (I don't mean that to be patronising - these subcultures add to the richness of life and stave of the encroaching beigeness of the modern world).

It's a culture that Cartmel portrays with real affection and seemingly exhaustive knowledge and its hidden corners and byways provide a fascinating setting for his protagonist who must delve into a decades old mystery as he searches for a very particular, very rare, record. There's an urgency to this. Our hero is basically penniless and his heating has failed, threatening him and his cats with hypothermia - that record will pay his bills for months, if he can find it - but more to the point, anyone who comes into contact with it - or who may have done so - acquires a bad habit of dying. The only way out is to take to the car boot sales, the charity shops and the backstreet emporia and get crate diving.

Of course there's a beautiful woman involved, setting things in motion (although Nevada is anything but a device to motivate the hero: try saying that to her face). Of course there is double dealing, and a mysterious, all-powerful enemy... But above all there is fun by the bucketload. Once Cartmel gets things going (and he does that pretty quickly) the story continues at a breakneck pace, throwing out clues, red herrings by the slabful and introducing a range of colourful contacts and low life figures in and on the fringes of the record hunting community. And not all of them die.

There is in the end a serious and sad story behind all the mayhem, highlighting a real issue in the history of jazz and much other popular music - but I'll say no more about that because spoilers. Above all though this is absolutely cracking entertainment and I'd highly recommend it. I'm delighted to see that there are followups planned - Cartmel has found a joyously different setup for (hopefully) a string of fun and highly readable crime adventures.

I'm grateful for a review copy of this book. It's published on 10 May but copies were already in the shops on 2nd (see photo!)