2014; 280 pages. Full title : Little God Blues (The Jim Shalabon
Playlist) (Volume 1). New
Author? : Yes Genre : Murder Mystery; Intrigue. Overall Rating : 7*/10.
It
was a tragedy, really. Jim Shalabon’s
ex-bandmate, Kirk Howell, found dead in London from a lethal drug overdose
combination of cocaine and amphetamines.
But OD-ing is a common occurrence for rock stars, right? So it’s just a matter of whether it was
suicide or an accident.
Except for one small thing. Being
in the same band, Jim knows that Kirk never did drugs. He’d even gone as far as to chide his “user”
bandmates (including
Jim) about the perils of drugs.
Then
there’s the odd fact the Kirk was clutching a book of Russian poems in his
hands when he died. It may seem
incidental what a victim was carrying at the time of his demise. But those poems were written by Jim’s father.
What’s To Like...
If you like your Murder-Mysteries heavy on the Intrigue, Little God Blues is for you. There’s not a lot of action, but gobs of
suspects. It’s not so much a matter of
choosing from a bunch of motives; it’s more about finding a plausible motive at
all.
The “Little God” concept (see
first excerpt below) is quite innovative, and frankly, if you focus in that
aspect while reading this book, I think you’ll enjoy it more. Our protagonist becomes an agent for said
“little god”, albeit unwittingly, and a number of lives get straightened out (or at least,
re-aligned) through him.
The book is (mostly) written from the First
Person POV. Blood-wise, the book borders
on being a cozy. Kirk is already dead
and buried by page one, and the ‘removal’ of other characters occurs
offstage. But there’s a lot of cussing
and a little sex, so prudes should probably avoid this one. The two basic mysteries – Kirk’s demise and
Jim’s father’s book of poems – are resolved by the end. But other threads remain, and it is obvious
that there will be a sequel.
The
story is set in 2001-2002 London. Jeffrey
M. Anderson reportedly lives there; and he does a great job of “painting” the
setting. I’ve been lucky enough to have
visited England several times, and this book brought back great memories.
The pacing in the first third of the book
felt slow. Jim spends a lot of time
mooning over the loss of his ex-bandmate, and the song lyrics at the start of
the chapters didn’t factor into the storyline, and frankly were a distraction for me. But after a while both disappear, and the story picks up the pace nicely.
FWIW, my favorite parts of the book were a
couple of “tangents”. The NE1
role-playing scene was both fascinating and funny. And the Siege of Leningrad sideline was
positively riveting.
Kewlest New Word...
Recrudescent (adj.)
: breaking out again, renewing disease after abatement, suppression, or
cessation.
Excerpts...
To choose from
among the infinite and keep such choice in balance, second by second, so that
the entire universe moves seamlessly, must be a gargantuan task. The mother desperately praying for her child
to live is asking God to reconfigure the universe, reconcile to a new storyline
an entire unwinding of events out to infinity.
Can death be that shortcut? A
simplifying maneuver so that this overtaxed deity does not have to reconcile
all lives out to infinity then back again?
Rhythm of the
dice implies randomness, and randomness subverts Belief. The thought of that overworked god, Little
God, helped. (loc. 1074)
“I am talking
about taste. You taste to me quite
good. This is what kissing is for on
biological level. It is a test to see if man and woman are optimum for children.” She stopped for a moment. “You see, I had to know.”
(. . .)
“It tells me of
great difficulty to be friends. It is
like we are in the same bed but for sleep only.
To say this to each other, oh, we will only sleep, we are fooling
ourselves.”
“Sula, have you
considered the possibility that you think too much?” (loc. 2367)
“The hardest thing to do is to find a black cat in a dark room,
especially if there is no cat..” (loc.
1534)
My
two main problems with this novel were the protagonist and the murder-mystery
itself.
Jim
Shalabon has a good heart (something an agent of the Little God ought to have),
but is otherwise unremarkable. He’s
financially well-off, and can play guitar, but asking the reader to believe
that he can solve crimes that Scotland Yard can’t is quite the stretch of
believability. Indeed, when the investigators
come to Jim for direction, I had to go “WTF”?
Then there’s a crime-mystery itself.
In the end, its motivation is rather anti-climactic, and Jim’s investigative
method – “bluffing” his way by postulating theories to suspects, and having
them then implicate themselves for no discernible reason – again strained my
logical sensibilities.
So
read this as a “Little God” story: the
Universe is quietly straightening Itself out after a small hiccup,
and you’ll not be disappointed. And if
you come to a WTF in the Crime-Solving, just chalk that up to Cosmic Tweaking.
7 Stars. Add 1 star
if you’ve ever played in a band; and another 1 star
if you find Jim Shalabon fascinating.
After all, Sula did.
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