Review: Great Scene, Light on Characters
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 28, 2012
What intrigued me most about this one was the Memphis Rockabilly scene in which the story is set. IMHO, Rockabilly is waay underrepresented in pop culture in all media, yet it's so rich in material. What's not underrepresented, though, is vampires. In this story, I felt the paranormal element detracted from what would otherwise be a pretty decent introduction to a mystery series.I loved the mixture of Rockabilly sensibilities and the small-time music scene--for a long time, most publishers didn't want to touch any story that prominently featured a musician, and I think the world got deprived from that attitude. The drama between Veronica's band members felt real and honest, and they intrigued me, especially her quarreling with the guitarist, Frank. The murder mystery starts with the murder of their bassist, Johnny. Veronica experiences some paranormal things when she discovers the body, but I honestly thought they were unnecessary. The story could have stood by itself without the addition of vampires and witches or Veronica's sadly useless visions surrounding the bodies she's discovered. A murder mystery in the Memphis scene alone would have kept me reading.The scenes focused around building the "scene" with the sensibilities of mid-century America (suburban tracts, backyard BBQs, and homogeneity) and the Rockabilly subversion of that aspect of the culture, but the story would have been better served if the scenes also deepened the characters. I wanted to see Veronica more actively pursuing her answers, rather than running from stalkers. Some of her decisions surrounding her stalkers were unwise, and skirted near TSTL territory. However, the seeds were planted for her mistrust of the authorities and it's a shame that the author didn't play up what would be a clearly classic Rockabilly theme of "our kind versus The Fuzz" and have served the sense of cozy mystery a lot more effectively.There's a very subtle throughline running through the whole story that I really want to congratulate the author for. For large swathes of the story, I felt like I was watching a drive-in B-movie of the era--and I mean that as a compliment! The same young people who were the original source material of the Rockabilly vibe were the teens and young adults who flocked to the drive-ins to neck and be scared by tough-acting pin-up bombshells making unwise personal choices and running with the Bad Crowd of greasers, rock'n'rollers, and bikers. In this way, some of the story heroine's personal choices make a certain kind of sense, and would have felt more natural had the supernatural element been taken out.Nevertheless, I hope the author continues the series, because the scene is rich with potential, and I think the author has the potential to tap into all the wonderful quirkiness of the scene. As a side note, I would love to see the cover redesigned with a more Rockabilly sensibility to it, rather than the more paranormal feel the current cover gives. This is not her strongest novel, but I like the concept well enough to look for a follow-up book.Who will like this book: Fans of the Rockabilly scene will enjoy seeing some of the elements of the lifestyle. People who miss musician heroes in their stories will like the idea of a torch singer solving music scene crimes. Fans of light, quirky paranormal series who don't take their vampires too seriously, and who allow a series to find its footing will enjoy the potential this series has.