A good mystery, well written and gripping.
I loved the well crafted plot and the excellent characters.
The mystery is solid and kept me guessing.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Sex, booze and rock ‘n roll.

It’s 1966, London, and 18 year old Steve Cook is riding the wave of stardom as the lead singer of a hot new band. Until a dead girl is found in his hotel room one morning after a gig. Steve is still drunk and cannot remember even going to bed the night before. He is still only a person of interest, not a murder suspect, but he flees the country regardless, his music career in tatters

Fast forward to 1978, Steve is living in San Francisco and his daughter has just been kidnapped. He contacts Colleen Hayes, a private investigator, to find her. Colleen has a troubled past of her own. Pregnant and married at 16, she killed her husband 8 years later for abusing their daughter. After spending 9 years in prison she is now the sole owner and operator of Hayes Confidential (her PI agency). Steve gets a ransom demand but Colleen’s years in prison have taught her a lot. She believes something about the whole set-up smells fishy. She might be right! Then things get very complicated very quickly.

This was a fun trip down memory lane. How quickly you forget there was a time before mobile (cell) phones and the internet. So there are no google searches to help Colleen. She must do things the old-fashioned way. The first half of the book was a bit pedestrian. I really enjoyed the second half though where things got dicey for both Colleen and Steve and where old secrets and enemies are unearthed to throw a dark pall over the present. I also really liked Colleen’s character, she is tough and fearless. I suppose hard time will do that to you. If the author starts the next book like he finished this one he will be onto a winner. 3 ½ stars rounded to 3.

In 1966, 16yrs old Steve Cook, a ideal admired by all for his singing talent and his songs has been on the superhit charts for weeks. His world turns around when once in the morning after his performance, a girl is found dead in his bed. Being a teenager he get scared fleed away from London & settles in US.

Now present it's 1978, Steve daughter Melina has been abducted and a high ransom pay is being demanded and after few days his ex-wife, Lynda is murdered and here again Steve is charged for the murder as the murdering weapon is found hidden in his house.

Colleen Hayes, a private detective hired by Steve who herself happens to be his fan at a time is now looking after Melina's kidnapping & Lynda's murder case. She knows how it's like to on the accused side as she'd just got released from 10yrs in prison for murdering her ex.
As through the case all present & past mysteries & their connections are opening up by layer while Colleen & Steve being in constant trouble with their lives.

Okay I guess my main disappointment was that probably this novel is for people who know San Francisco very well. I mean being a non- U.S. resident, it was so hard to keep up the so much info like instead of writing she took left turn, there was an address which was seriously messing up. And the 2nd point the story was a bit slow & stretched out. Mysteries and thrillers were pretty good.

Non-stop action in this book with a good story and good characters. Excellent use of creating the atmosphere by showing the setting - it was a throwback in time. Little details made all the difference - the clothes, pay phones, music,etc. A good mystery and some romance thrown in. A very entertaining book!

This was second book in this series and it was as good as the first. Filled with mystery and suspense. This is a book which I would recommend to others.

Terrible writing. Fierce editor needed. Beyond the style and syntax problem are other problems the book has with its content. It's hard to figure out what year it is set and then go check the anachronisms, but, book 1 in the series (which I have not read) is set in 1978 so this is nearby. But even in 1978, felons cannot own or carry guns. Thus, our hero cannot every carry one, which as a private detective who wants to do more than spouse chasing, is quite a challenge. Some states ban felons from becoming private eyes. And, if I read the sketchy intro correctly, our hero does not even have her license yet, which means that tackling a kidnapping is out of her league. I didn't feel like struggling with the text and stopped reading.

*5 Stars*

Copy kindly received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really good read with interesting characters. I was satisfied with what happened to some of the characters.

This premise sounded interesting, but I didn't realize that it was a sequel. The sentences are kind of choppy, which took me out of the story a lot of the time. I feel like I would have enjoyed this book more had I read the first one as I had a hard time connecting with Colleen in this book. I think I will go back and try the first book before reevaluating my assessment.

The mystery itself is solid, but you're here for the 1970's - the book is drenched in the seedy, sexy, flamboyant, harsh flavour of the time period, without it feeling like cheap name dropping.

A female lead in a book set in during that decade also adds a whole dimension you wouldn't get with the normal hard-boiled male detective.

To begin with, I wondered if this would be a DNF (did not finish) for me. Why? The choppy writing style drove me to distraction.

A knock on the door. Answered it. Sat down. Not a direct quote, but that type of thing.

Thankfully, once I settled into the story, it became less noticeable.

Colleen Hayes is one of my all-time favourite heroines. Although this is the first book I've read in the series, I believe it can be read as a standalone. With that said, I'm looking forward to backtracking to find out more about our heroine.

Steve's story was compelling as was Colleen's amateur sleuthing, there was only one instant I questioned and that was her need to find out what Steve had done all those years ago when his ex just had a rant stating as much...in Colleen's presence.

Minor quibbles aside, I loved the era this story was set in. The '70s. The mention of many a teen's idol from that time, Leif Garret, brought back memories.

If you enjoy a good mystery with leads you'll be rooting for, you can't go far wrong here.

Copy provided by the publisher, Ocean Publishing, via NetGalley

I was definitely surprised with this one! At first it took me a little bit to get into it but then I couldn’t put it down! Go ahead and try it!

This is my favorite kind of mystery - crackling with action right out of the gate, with a literal rock star main character. Steve Cook is a character I liked immediately, and so is unlicensed PI Colleen Hayes. I loved the 70s San Francisco backdrop. This book was clearly written by someone who knows San Francisco rather than someone who just read a lot about the era.

Colleen is a great character and I had a lot of fun reading a gritty Virginia Slim-smoking female PI novel set in SF in the 70s with a fun sense of humor about itself. (A random of $20,000 is described as “twice what most people make in a year.”) Having worked in criminal law in SF myself (though not in the 70s) I was very pleased that this book felt very authentic as well as fun. All the right elements are here at the right times: kidnapping, sex, murder, the hero who might be the killer...and yet it’s not predictable.

If you like your crime novels dark and hard boiled and full of action, but also with a sense of humor, this is a great little find. Tomlinson’s book masters the hard boiled 70s detective style without ever feeling forced. You can tell he had as much fun writing it as I had reading it. will definitely be reading more Max Tomlinson books. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5!

Thanks to NetGalley, Max Tomlinson and Oceanview Publishing for this fun read. I will read more of Colleen Hayes!

A colorful location, a tantalizing puzzle, and an abundance of San Francisco lore.

This will please a wide variety of mystery readers.

I was hooked to this book the entire time.

**Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for a honest review**