The Day the Music Died: A Mystery

Rating:
Summary: I must be missing something..but I did find a good book!
Review: "Buddy Holly died on February 3, 1959 in a plane crash in Iowa during a snowstorm." Now that's a direct quote from The Fifties Website and it conforms to the date of the first scene in the novel. Frankly, I don't remember the exact date of Buddy's death myself, but that WAS my senior year in high school in a small midwestern town, and I do remember much of the setting and the evocative details of "The Day the Music Died". The accuracy is there, as is the emotions and the social pressures of that age: this story of abortion, murder, and jealousy is in itself a tale of the repressed '50's. It's populated by my long-forgotten friends in poodle skirts and saddle shoes, their uptight parents and repressed aunts and uncles, and the bipolar behavior of a teenaged generation breaking loose from the past. This a wonderful mystery novel: well written, well designed, and suspenseful. I'm anxiously waiting for more novels by Ed Gorman.

Rating:
Summary: I must be missing something..but I did find a good book!
Review: "Buddy Holly died on February 3, 1959 in a plane crash in Iowa during a snowstorm." Now that's a direct quote from The Fifties Website and it conforms to the date of the first scene in the novel. Frankly, I don't remember the exact date of Buddy's death myself, but that WAS my senior year in high school in a small midwestern town, and I do remember much of the setting and the evocative details of "The Day the Music Died". The accuracy is there, as is the emotions and the social pressures of that age: this story of abortion, murder, and jealousy is in itself a tale of the repressed '50's. It's populated by my long-forgotten friends in poodle skirts and saddle shoes, their uptight parents and repressed aunts and uncles, and the bipolar behavior of a teenaged generation breaking loose from the past. This a wonderful mystery novel: well written, well designed, and suspenseful. I'm anxiously waiting for more novels by Ed Gorman.

Rating:
Summary: Dissapointing
Review: As historical fiction, and as a mystery, this books fails. Besides occasional references to convertibles and AM radio, the story could have been from any time. The mystery is uninvolving, and ultimately dissappointing.

Rating:
Summary: Nice storytelling, but what about copyediting?
Review: As many have pointed out, the date that Buddy Holly died is wrong, and song lyrics are misquoted. There are other copyediting errors as well. We are told that the Judge's grandfather was shipped out to Iowa after disgracing the family back east. But later it becomes the judge's greatgreatfather. There are other such minor gaffes. But far worse, especially for a novel in this genre, the hero solves the mystery with the help of a verbal clue referring to something a character said earlier. But I went back and reread that passage several times and the key line was never said! For a mystery such an error is disgraceful. Didn't anybody read this book before it went to press? All that aside, this is a minor but reasonably entertaining effort, with a nice breezy style and a likeable protagonist. There is little real suspense, however, and the author seems far more interested in depicting the late '50s small town Iowa setting than in building a creditable mystery. The "solution" to the crime seems tacked on and half-hearted.

Rating:
Summary: Nice storytelling, but what about copyediting?
Review: I found this one on the unwanted books rack at my local Gym. Never had heard of Ed Gorman before (turns out hes pretty prolific!) but this is a great 1st novel in this new series which takes place in the late 50s. I loved the plot, the characters, and the setting (midwest 'natch!)- I await my other books in the series!

Rating:
Summary: A lucky Find.
Review: I found this one on the unwanted books rack at my local Gym. Never had heard of Ed Gorman before (turns out hes pretty prolific!) but this is a great 1st novel in this new series which takes place in the late 50s. I loved the plot, the characters, and the setting (midwest 'natch!)- I await my other books in the series!

Rating:
Summary: retro revisionism
Review: The author has another winning book, but don't expect much stimulation from it; it is an easy read, but that is not a bad thing. The characters and story are interesting, but there isn't much challenge to it, so you can just flow along until the end, and you will have a nice, entertaining time. Unhappily, the author is guilty of having some of his characters be more "politically correct" than would have been the case in '50s Iowa; it seems he is inserting his own sensibilities more often than is reasonable. At that time, people were both good and bad, as in most times, but they weren't as conscious of some of the distinctions then as now. In those days, newspapers and politicians weren't always beating everyone over the head about how they should think, and yelling at us to be so "inclusive." Even the most open-minded people then developed their own ideas and morals, with help from family and close friends, but the media didn't press us with many ideas and names. So the author's characters are nicely done, but their "politically correct" pronouncements are jarring and seem out of place for time and place of the story. But if a nice, easy read is what you need, and all of us do at times, then this should be satisifying.