#TheVinylDetective Written In The Dead Wax by Andrew Cartmel mini spoiler free review

The Vinyl Detective by Andrew Cartmel tells the story of an obsessive vinyl collector, who spends his days trawling charity shops hoping to find that ignorantly donated gem that he'll be able to turnover on ebay for a quick profit, whilst of course adding to his ever expanding collection the whole time.

Things suddenly change when, called upon by a mysterious and beautiful woman working for an unknown party, our detective is tasked with hunting down a particularity obscure jazz record. Of course, after some hunting and rather exciting and dangerous encounters, it becomes apparent they're not the only ones after the precious disk. But what's so special about this one?

I thoroughly enjoyed the plot of The Vinyl Detective from start to finish. The cast of characters all have some depth to make justify your investment, and the story has enough romance, action and mystery to keep you readily turning those pages. The author clearly knows his stuff, and there are numerous references to the geeky vinyl aficionados, from knowing about the different types of cartridge used on players, different amplifiers and even record cleaning techniques.

I'm not a record novice, but I'm also not a connoisseur. Falling squarely between the two I knew enough to get by, but I doubt somebody with little or no interest in music would get nearly as much from this as I would, despite the well written prose and clearly well thought out story.

What I found was that it was easy to empathise with the lead and I enjoyed reading his internal dialogue. His actual conversations with the extended cast are also fun to read, and in addition to some expected plot twists and turns there's even a good level of action. There's a decent amount of levity too, such as the inclusion of our lead's very particular two cats, and his pot smoking best friend.

Ben Aaronovitch nudged Andrew Cartmel into creating this series, and I can see why. It was a few similarities with the ease of accessibility and detective and murder-mystery themes that Rivers Of London has. It also very much put me in mind of the author Ray Celestin (The Axeman's Jazz).

Witty, well written and genuinely interesting, I'll definitely be reading the rest of the series and can readily recommend The Vinyl Detective to mystery fans, music fans and fans of authors like Aaronovitch or Celestin. A great read.