Having read and loved his last book (Letters from Yelena) I was intrigued to know if his new one would work its way 'under my skin' like the first. The writer Guy Mankowski has this ability to reaching inside the head space and psychology of his characters, especially when written in the first person. As I read through, so I began to slip inside the body and mind of a man driven to self destruction and desertion.
I re-remembered chunks of my own youth lived as a gothic rock girl and began smelling the cheep beer, old carpets and hot air reminiscent of live music venues. Bits of my own life merged with the lead characters and by the end of the book I could soundly say, yes, this had also worked its way 'under my skin'.
In the 1980s Robert Wardner, eccentric frontman of post-punk band ‘The National Grid’ became famous overnight after committing an act on Top Of The Pops that shocked a nation. But a year later he had vanished, leaving a 'masterpiece' record abandoned in his wake. More darkly, rumours grew that his disappearance was due to him having brutally murdered an obsessed young fan. Twenty-five years later word has spread that the singer is alive and scheming to re-emerge. Sam, a journalist who helped first bring his band to the public eye, is commissioned to track Wardner down so he will at last tell his story for a book. Finding Wardner is the only way for Sam to save his collapsed career and relationship. But it gradually becomes apparent that by cornering his quarry Sam may in fact be planning his own murder.
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