Book Review: Andrew Cartmel's Mystery Series at the Top of the Charts

The Vinyl Detective: Written in Dead Wax by Andrew Cartmel

The Vinyl Detective in a mystery series of the finest kind. Author Andrew Cartmel succeeds in creating both a set of believable characters mysteries with enough twists to keep even the most avid fan of the genre guessing.

In “The Vinyl Detective: Written in Dead Wax”—the first book in the series, the protagonist is a collector of rare vinyl. In a random, half-forgotten moment, dubs himself the Vinyl Detective and vows to be able to help his clients find whatever rare, hard-to-find, record they desire.

Proving himself might be harder than he imagined, when a beautiful woman appears eliciting his assistance in just such a project.

What follows is a surprising, sometimes shocking, always satisfying conglomeration of events that test his patience, his dedication, and his friendships to the limit. In a series of plot twists and reversals, Cartmel’s detective struggles to keep ahead of rival collectors, murderers, and even his own employer—if he even knows just who that is and why he’s been hired.

There’s just the right amount of tension, mystery, and collectors’ jargon to keep you turning pages. An excellent first in series that had me hooked at the start, The Vinyl Detective is well worth the read.

“The Vinyl Detective: The Run-Out Groove” is the second book in the series, and with a set of circumstances just as unusual and with plot twists just as surprising, Cartmel revisits the world he’s created with laudable results.

This time the mystery involves a long-dead musician, her missing child, and the people she knew. Who is trying to keep the truth buried and who is hiding something? The list of suspects includes rock stars, relatives, and more as the detective and his friends find themselves slipping deeper into trouble with each fact they unearth. What happened to the Sixties Rock Star, her sister, her son, and her record collection?

The answers are surprising enough but the route to those answers is the real payoff. The author keeps the action going, and the characters are well-written and well-rounded. You like them—even the unlikable ones.

I’m looking forward to the next volume in the series.