String Theory, Bing Turkby

STRING THEORY is the 2nd in the Guitar Store Mysteries, and the first I've read. Which I think might have been a bit of a mistake. This worked, in that it was fun, a bit silly, and a bit of giggle in places, although it did take me a while to figure out who was who and how it all fitted together. Maybe the first book, DEAD MAN'S AXE will fill in those gaps when I get to it on "MtTBR that can be seen from the moon....".

Set, unsurprisingly, in and around Dana Osborne's guitar store, where she would be happy just hanging out, talking music with an eclectic range of customers, and her assistant Brody, Osborne has a habit (it seems) of getting involved in murders. In the first book it was a local music teacher, in this one it's star of once famous prog-rock band, Cranial Bypass, Apocalypse BusLane (yes I know but to be fair, it's prog rock so let us never forget Marillion and Fish ...).

Anyway Cranial Bypass are in Rockingham West for a reunion gig when BusLane is murdered at a rehearsal. On the one hand Osborne's warned to stay out of things, on the other hand Constable Wade McNeish is asking for her help (and it's probably here that I sort of wished I'd known the backstory), but anyway, long story short, the pathway to finding out what happens is Dana Osborne on the inside - a member of Cranial Bypass (she's one seriously good guitarist - did I mention that).

It's one of those slightly hectic, try not to concentrate on too many of the convenient plot points, roll with the punches, have a bit of a laugh styles of crime fiction that's good for the soul sometimes. Good enough that the first novel is sitting in the wish list subsection of the ridiculously large MtTBR list now.