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The Vinyl Detective Mysteries, Book 5

By: Andrew Cartmel

Narrated by: Finlay Robertson

Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

The Vinyl Detective goes punk in his fifth hilarious adventure.

Semi-retired god of rock guitar and local poseur Erik Make Loud has got himself a new girlfriend. Helene Hilditch - formerly known as Howlin' Hellbitch - of all-girl punk outfit Blue Tits is a mean guitarist, and someone is trying to kill her. With a rare pressing of their first album to find, the Vinyl Detecive and Nevada are soon called into to help, but this time the question is, who isn't a suspect? 

With a trail of grudges behind her, the list of people who could want Helene dead includes her ex-bandmates, their former producer turned record label mogul, the TV presenter who Helene got fired - even their old roadie could be in on it.

©2020 Andrew Cartmel (P)2020 W. F. Howes Ltd

Critic reviews

“Hilarious and thrilling.” (Ben Aaronovitch)

Great listen!

The whole series is a joy to listen to. Cartmel really kept me guessing as to what was to come next. I also liked the nod to Aaronovich's River series.

one of my favorite series

Great combination of excellent story telling and an engaging reader.

You do need to read the series in order.

Can’t wait for the next one!

It’s so easy to slip back into this world. The characters are like old friends now. The plot line had my mind going on tangents. The antics had me roaring with laughter. The dry quips had me sniggering. The casual mention of Lady Tyburn had me imagining a collaboration with Peter and the Rivers. This then led me to laughing at the thought of Tinkler’s reaction to a genuine supernatural encounter.
The narrator is so well cast to these books. He portrays the female characters so well and doesn’t try to put on a girlie voice.
The only bad thing is that I binge listen instead of savouring the story. But even this has a plus point, in that when I listen again in a few weeks there’ll be a few gems that I missed the first time.

The best yet!

This series goes from strength to strength, and this latest book in the series is the best yet! The plot is complex and nuanced, with excitement, murder and mayhem never far away.
On a personal note, we learn more about the recurring main characters from previous books.
I particularly liked hearing the surprising back story of the gorgeous and talented Nirvada- which goes to explain how she acquired her unusual skill sets!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the reader did an excellent job of bringing the diverse characters to life; picking up the tempo to skillfully enhance the tension when needed!

Annual highlight

Despite the Vinyl Detective being a shamelessly pompous metropolitan, I do like these books.
Again, there is a really neat plot that nips along at a great pace and has a completely satisfying conclusion.
It’s entertaining even if you have limited affection for punk music, record miscellany or cats.
BUT someone should tell the narrator that Persephone is NOT pronounced percy-phone. Shudder.

5 Stars all around.

I loved this book. Well done Andrew. Also the narration is brilliant and totally brings the story alive.
I can’t wait for the next instalment.

A bit like the curate's egg.

Hmm. I have now read or listened to the whole series so far (books one to five). The novels are certainly amusing and feature a unique protagonist. All in all a good read and worth listening to. However ; I do with that the author would stop lifting pieces of real life and re-using them to his own ends. Over the course of the series we have had the re-invention of the Syd Barrett story and The KLF's burning of one million dollars. These are but two examples. Schoolboy errors such as assigning an RAF officer the rank of colonel also irritate. Altogether though ... worth the effort.
A note to the narrator Finlay Robertson. The name Persephone is pronounced "per-sef-onay" NOT " percy- phone"

Quite disappointing

I’ve listened to all the series and I was really looking forward to this one however it was a bit of let down. It was well read but the story wasn’t as good as previous ones. Not enough records in it really. May sound daft but he is the vinyl detective and previous stories really went into detail about records. Playing them, collecting them... not much of that here I’m afraid.

Brilliant

I Love this series, wish Andrew Cartmel would write more of these in a hurry!

Clever, funny

Another witty story about the vinyl detective and his gang. Even though this is the 5 th book, I have now read them all, not in order but pretty much in order. I am really invested in all his books. Please keep writing Andrew.

Sneaky Easter egg

As the series gets more established it just gets more fun.
The sonic screwdriver mention was a nice touch for someone who started listening to this due to Andrew’s past work on a certain TV show and a fondness for his ‘Masterplan’

Brilliant

Audible why have you made a written review mandatory. You used to be able to just give a star rating.