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Dashboard Elvis is Dead – David F Ross

A failed writer connects the murder of an American journalist, a drowned 80s musician and a Scottish politician’s resignation, in a heart-wrenching novel about ordinary people living in extraordinary times.

Renowned photo-journalist Jude Montgomery arrives in Glasgow in 2014, in the wake of the failed Scottish independence referendum, and it’s clear that she’s searching for someone.

Is it Anna Mason, who will go on to lead the country as First Minister? Jamie Hewitt, guitarist from eighties one-hit wonders The Hyptones? Or is it Rabbit – Jude’s estranged foster sister, now a world-famous artist?

Three apparently unconnected people, who share a devastating secret, whose lives were forever changed by one traumatic night in Phoenix, forty years earlier…

Taking us back to a school shooting in her Texas hometown, and a 1980s road trip across the American West – to San Francisco and on to New York – Jude’s search ends in Glasgow, and a final, shocking event that only one person can fully explain…

I received a review copy from the publisher, Orenda Books, ahead of this blog tour post. My thanks to Orenda Books and to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to help open the tour for Dashboard Elvis is Dead.

When David F Ross writes a new novel I never know what to expect. But with Dashboard Elvis is Dead I don’t think I could ever anticipated the journey he takes his readers on. The story begins in Glasgow (a location I’ll admit I was expecting to feature) but not the Glasgow cafe and not with an American character taking the lead. Jude is looking for a quiet place so it’s not surprising that one of Glasgow’s own decides to sit with her and begin a (very one sided) conversation. David F Ross is very good at nailing the Glasgowisms of his characters and from these opening scenes his pinpoint observational humour comes to the fore.

We don’t linger long in Glasgow as events soon take us back in time and across the Atlantic Ocean to an 80s America where Jude is still a schoolgirl and finding life with her mother rather challenging. Jude’s life is about to take her places she never could have envisaged but before the rollercoaster of shock and upset is an unexpected and very welcome friendship with the school football star. He is the epitomy of the all American high school quarterback and Jude is a mixed race quiet girl – they keep their friendship a secret so when it is suddenly and tragically ended nobody can know the extent of Jude’s upset. It’s a harrowing and beautifully written delve back in time and sets the tone of the novel. Expect drama, emotional turmoil and don’t expect fairy tale endings.

As Jude leaves home and starts a journey to the bright city lights we meet The Hypetones. A Scottish breakthrough band who are embarking on a massive journey to the US to make their fortune and become the next big thing. Except they probably wont and their journey is being paid for on a shoestring budget which will test the patience of the musicians and their travelling companions. Wickedly funny, you cannot help but feel sorry for these young men as nothing seems to be going their way. But how I loved reading about their introduction to America and its cheap hotels and glitzy clubs.

Dashboard Elvis is Dead is a story which will unfold over a number of decades. An emotional journey which also spans different continents and will show how the lives of the central characters change as they grow and adapt to the world around them. David F Ross is one of the best at capturing characters and breathing life, humour and humanity into them so his readers cannot help but become engaged in their stories. It’s a wonderful read.

I wasn’t able to predict where the story was heading and I wasn’t prepared for how much I would become invested in the book either. I generally skim read stories and fly through them when I get started. I didn’t do that in this case. My reading slowed, I was taking in much more detail and I got much, much more back from the book as a result. Time with this book was time very well spent. It’s a reading treat – treat yourself when it releases next week.

Dashboard Elvis is Dead is published by Orenda Books and releases in paperback, digital and audiobook format on 8 December 2022. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0B4Z6PBX3/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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February 22

Death Deserved – Jorn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger

Police officer Alexander Blix and celebrity blogger Emma Ramm join forces to track down a serial killer with a thirst for attention and high-profile murders, in the first episode of a gripping new Nordic Noir series…

Oslo, 2018. Former long-distance runner Sonja Nordstrøm never shows at the launch of her controversial autobiography, Always Number One. When celebrity blogger Emma Ramm visits Nordstrøm’s home later that day, she finds the door unlocked and signs of a struggle inside. A bib with the number ‘one’ has been pinned to the TV.

Police officer Alexander Blix is appointed to head up the missing-persons investigation, but he still bears the emotional scars of a hostage situation nineteen years earlier, when he killed the father of a five-year-old girl. Traces of Nordstrøm soon show up at different locations, but the appearance of the clues appear to be carefully calculated … evidence of a bigger picture that he’s just not seeing…

Blix and Ramm soon join forces, determined to find and stop a merciless killer with a flare for the dramatic, and thirst for attention.
Trouble is, he’s just got his first taste of it…

My thanks to Karen at Orenda Books for a review copy and to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for the opportunity to join the Death Deserved blog tour.

To borrow a line from Taffy in the Captain Caveman cartoons….Zowie! Death Deserved is more than a little bit good.

As soon I started reading Death Deserved it was the only book I wanted to be reading this week. I normally juggle three or four titles at once but Death Deserved was the book I kept coming back to – nothing else got a look-in. I make no secret of the fact I enjoy serial killer stories and that’s very much what I got from Death Deserved, even if that may not have been clear from the start.

Sonja Nordstrøm was due to publish a book. As she reached her 50th year she wanted to lift the lid on a few secrets and scandals which she experienced or encountered during her highly successful athletics career. But on publication day she failed to show for an interview, most untypical behaviour for Sonja. She is nowhere to be found and when celeb journalist Emma Ramm arrives at her home to try to speak with Sonja she finds evidence of a struggle. The police are called and this brings Emma into contact with Alexander Blix.

Unbeknownst to Emma, Blix has previously encountered her family and that encounter changed the path of Emma’s life. Although she is unaware, Blix recognises her name instantly and decides he will offer her stories and tips from inside the resulting investigation. The leads Blix feed Emma gives her the opportunity to work outside celebrity stories and interact with the crime reporters. Sonja Nordstrøm’s kidnapping is very much the starting point of a fast paced and high intensity investigation which will see several celebrities meet a nasty end. It puts the police on a manhunt and we follow the investigation as they try to figure out the motive (and next victim) of a killer. Emma contributes to this too as her background seems to give her a different focus on how to view the unfolding events and the insights she can offer become a benefit to Blix.

I really don’t want to reveal too much of the actual plot but at the same time I want to rave about how good this story was and how much I enjoyed it. The best dilemma to be honest. When I want to reveal and discuss everything I loved about the book it means the book got under my skin and into my head. I want to put copies of Death Deserved into the hands of my friends and implore them to read it and then hope that they enjoy it just as much as I did (which I am sure they will). It’s a who-dunnit, a fast paced police procedural, it has great characters and the lead players are given time to grow and develop between the many twists and shocks the authors have sneaked into the chapters. So much fun to read and wonderfully executed (no murderous puns intended).

The story has been translated from Norwegian by Anne Bruce and she has done a magnificent job, the prose flows seamlessly the whole book was very readable. Some translated texts I encounter feel laboured, jarring or the dialogue stilted but none of these issues could be raised about Death Deserved. Indeed, it was not until I read the author acknowledgements at the end of the book that I remembered that I was reading a translated novel. Oh and the acknowledgments are fabulous – do not skip them!

Death Deserved was devoured in very short time. I loved the Blix/Ramm dynamic and I sincerely hope the authors feel it is worth revisiting. Soon would be good guys! Sooner if possible?

Death Deserved is published by Orenda Books and is available in Digital, Paperback and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07XBW6SFN/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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February 10

Never Look Back – A.L. Gaylin (Audiobook)

Some people deserve to die. Others never should have been born at all.

In 1975, 15-year-old April Cooper and her 18-year-old boyfriend embark on a weeklong killing spree that results in the deaths of a dozen innocent people in Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley. Was April a willing accomplice or a victim herself, abducted by an obsessed psychopath and forced into committing horrible acts?

No one will ever know for sure, as April and Eric were apparently killed in a bloody shoot-out at the Death Valley compound of their final victims – a family of off-the-grid survivalists known as The Gideons.

In 2015, Robin Brennan’s parents have been involved in a shooting. Her father is dead, and her mother in a critical state, with Robin desperate for her to wake.

But when Jameson Malloy, the host of Closure – a true crime podcast investigating the San Gabriel Valley murder – shows up, Robin soon learns that her parents are maybe not who they say they are….

My thanks to Alex at Orion for providing the review copy of Never Look Back and to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for the opportunity to join the audio blog tour.

Never Look Back is a clever, slow-burn tale where the author teases a tale of secrets and half-truths from her cast to keep readers guessing to the end of the book.

Quentin Garrison is producing a podcast called Closure. He appears a troubled young man and the Closure in the title is to be his personal closure. He wants to cover the story of the murder of his aunt – killed as a toddler during a shooting when now-notorious schoolgirl, April Cooper, and her boyfriend went on a prolonged crime spree in 1976.

His aunt’s death at a young age broke his mother’s spirit and that of her father, Quentin’s grandfather. Seeking to understand how April Cooper could have so comprehensively ruined his own life Quentin is shocked to learn that Cooper may still be alive despite the world believing she died in a fire in 76.

One of the key people who may be able to help Quentin get to the truth is Robin’s father – he studied behavioural psychology. Quentin seeks him out but before he is able to get the answers he seeks both Robin’s parents are attacked in their home. Her father dead, her mother critically I’ll in hospital, Robin begins to dig a bit deeper into who Quentin is and why he may feel her mother can help him trace a murderer who has been presumed dead for over 30 years.

Cooper herself does get a voice in the story as in 1976 she is writing a letter to her future child. It’s an idea one of her teachers had and one which Cooper really embraced. All the events which went down in history after her murderous spree had ended are narrated by Cooper to her future child in letter form. It allows the murderer to tell her side of the story and allows the reader to judge her actions independently.

As I mentioned – Never Look Back is a clever story and the author plants enough seeds of doubt through the narrative that I was never entirely sure which voices could be trusted at any time. That doubt and uncertainty kept me engaged though the book and the resolution was pleasing.

As with every audiobook the enjoyment (no matter how good the book) also relies upon the narrator – if you are investing 10 hours into a story then you need to be sure you are comfortable with the voice telling that story. Never Look Back has two narrators, James Fouhey and Jorjeana Marie. Marie takes the chapters dominated by female roles, Fouhey the male dominated chapters.

It felt Jorjeana Marie had more to cover over the course of the book as both April’s story and Robin’s are the majority of the focus. Quentin has a larger say when the podcast (and his investigation) is foremost. More of Jorjeana Marie’s voice was a decided bonus as I much preferred the chapters where she took the lead.

One peculiarity of the audiobook was the unexpected inclusion of additional sound effects in the opening chapters. One key element of the story gets additional background noises and incidental supporting sound behind the narrators voice. This is a bit of a rarity in the books I listen to (where normally all we get is the spoken word). The additional sound effects were initially startling but I was ready for their continued inclusion throughout the book. It wasn’t until the story ended that I realised the additional effects had stopped after the first ten minutes which made their brief inclusion all the more puzzling.

A slow burn audiobook needs its place in the day – nighttime listening was where I enjoyed Never Look Back the most. The easy drawl of the narrators was best suited to a quieter place and slower pace, it gave the story it’s best chance to shine.

Never Look Back – great story, well told. Audio best enjoyed in relaxed conditions.

Never Look Back is published by Orion and is available in audiobook, paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Never-Look-Back-brutal-mother-ebook/dp/B07KRLG18D/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1581285553&refinements=p_27%3AA.L.+Gaylin&s=books&sr=1-1&text=A.L.+Gaylin

Category: Audiobook, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off