Jon Morgan is a retired police Superintendent and francophile who, it is said, has consequently seen almost everything awful that people can do to each other. He relishes quality writing in all genres but advises particularly on police procedure for authors including John Harvey and Jon McGregor. Haunts bookshops both new and secondhand and stands with Erasmus: “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I may buy food and clothes.”
A 1970s Rock band, Nërëus and the Satyrs, is made up of members of that generation who experienced freedom and change after WW2, and all of who are damaged in some way by their upbringing – living proof of Philip Larkin’s assertion - and all of whom have their own agenda.
The lead singer ‘Nërëus’ or Neil, an odd and driven individual with a Greek background manipulatively splits from the other members of the band and after a huge hit album, centring on Atlantean myths and legends - Prog Rock at its most extreme - is later found dead, apparently of a drug overdose in a ‘locked room.’
The keyboard player / guitarist, Graham, although estranged from Nërëus, disappears that same night, leaving his wife and 5 year old child. He is suspected by many of having a hand in Nereus’s death.
Graham’s daughter, Winter, herself a lecturer in Hellenic subjects, starts to, obsessively, investigate the death and her father’s part in it, assisted by a motley crew of internauts and conspiracy theorists, interviewing many of the players from 45 years before and in the process, putting herself, her daughters and partner, at risk from mysterious dark forces.
A slightly predictable ‘shock’ revelation is redeemed by a twist in the denouement at the very end.
The post-war era and the excesses of the later 1960s and 1970s prog rock times are well-rendered and the writing is of a high standard. The band and their on and off stage antics are a combination of Yes, early (Peter Gabriel) Genesis, Wizard, The Sweet etc. Much like the fictional band there are moments of quality in a musical age, otherwise passed-by and overlooked by taste and style. It also rather brought to mind an episode of Endeavour, featuring a similar rock-band, even down to the ‘Top of the Pops’ type televised performance and controversy.
I did not quite find the ‘detective’ Winter quite convincing enough and some of the secondary characters were rather sketchily drawn. The need to know, however kept me reading
The minutiae of the development, meeting recordings and concerts as well of the off stage behaviour, drug taking and finances (cue the éminence grise) whilst possibly necessary for the propulsion of the plot, do get rather oppressive. That aside, this is an intriguing, occasionally unsettling, book and whilst essentially a classic ‘locked-room’ mystery, the reader is never quite sure whether crime or misadventure awaits at the conclusion.
Despite reservations as outlined above, this is, a good read and ultimately rewards the effort put into it. I am not sure that it was quite good enough to make me want to read his other novels.
