Very enjoyable. Reads less like a mystery and more about life as a successful rock musician. ( )

I must confess to a certain disgruntlement when an author abandons a series I love to begin another. I had this reaction even more strongly when I learned that [author: Deborah Grabien]'s Haunted Ballad series was at an end after only five books, to be replaced by a series featuring a rock guitarist. Like most people my age, I'm familiar with the Beatles, the Stones and Cream, but rock'n'roll has never been my major musical interest; I'm more into folk music and the Great American Songbook. So I wasn't sure I'd like the JP Kinkaid series Ms. Grabien was starting.

Then I read the first in the series. It differs from the Haunted Ballad books in many ways, but two things are the same: the love of music and musicians, and the quality of the writing.

Whereas the Haunted Ballad books were told in the third person, from multiple points of view, [book: Rock & Roll Never Forgets] is written in the first person from the point of view of John "JP" Kinkaid, so that we see what he sees, hear what he hears, and know what he thinks and feels. An aging rock star with multiple sclerosis, Kinkaid lives with his longtime companion Bree Godwin in San Francisco, when he's not on tour with his band Blacklight. The two are not married, because Kinkaid feels he cannot divorce his long-estranged wife back in London.

In between European and American tours, the band learns that it has become the latest focus (or victim) of a particularly sleazy unauthorized biographer. As they all have things in their pasts they'd just as soon were forgotten, no one is happy about this, but Kinkaid is a bit surprised at Bree's reaction, and even more so when she offers to come along on the American tour. Before long, though, he's wishing she were safe at home in San Francisco. Bree finds a murder victim in JP's dressing room and becomes the prime suspect. Her occasional disappearing acts don't help, and health issues keep cropping up for Kinkaid. On the way to the crime's solution, JP learns a lot about himself, Bree, and his wife Cilla. While enjoying the story, the reader also learns a lot about MS, the rockstar lifestyle, and the importance of music to true musicians. I will definitely be looking for more JP Kinkaid novels, even as I wish that the Haunted Ballad series could have continued. ( )

An enjoyable crime drama in which guitarist J P Kinkaid, a thirty year veteran of English band Blacklight (which in personnel and personalities bears a close relationship to the Rolling Stones), has to sort out a murder in which his long-time girlfriend is the prime suspect and which has roots deep in his past.

I didn't find the plot entirely convincing, but the two main characters and the '70s rock'n'sleaze background are excellent. (3.5/5) ( )

An aging rock star is touring with his band when a sleazy biographer who had targetted them is murdered backstage at one of their shows. His longtime girlfriend is the main suspect.

Not as good as Grabien's haunted ballad series, but not bad. ( )