Killer in the Crowd is a well written standalone mystery thriller by PN Johnson. Released 30th March 2022 by Burning Chair, it's 318 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free. 

This is the author's debut novel and I was most pleasantly surprised with the quality of the writing. It's an engaging and immersive cold-case missing persons mystery/thriller with a death in the current day which draws the female protagonist into trying to solve the 30-year-old mystery of her own mother's disappearance. Much of the book is set in the underground/punk music scene and the author does a superb job of recreating the milieu, including the gritty behind-the-scenes realities. 

There's a romance subplot which was deftly handled and which meshes nicely with the book's denouement and resolution. All in all a well written mystery thriller. There are mentions of drug abuse and sexual crimes. The language is rough in places with rugged monosyllables sprinkled throughout. Very much a case of sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll. 

Four stars. It'll be nice to see how (or if) the author develops the characters further.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I enjoyed the concept of this book, but I almost felt like I was reading a YA book by the style of writing.

Kath is a schoolteacher and living a semi normal life until the man that she believed was her father passes away. He’s a huge rockstar and it throws her back in the limelight with the media. Kath has kept her head down and stayed silent about who her mom was and what a big star she was. However, Kath’s quiet stops being quiet and she takes center stage while searching for her mom.

Killer in the crowd by Phil Johnson.
Cath Edgley is a normal schoolteacher at a normal high school… until she hears the shocking news that fading rock star Raven Rain has been murdered.Because, to Cath, Raven Rain is more than just a picture on a magazine – he was also the ex-lover of her missing mother, Betzy Blac, lead singer of ’80s punk girl band, Décolleté. A woman who went missing over 30 years ago.Warned by a string of mystery text messages to “trust no one”, Cath is inspired to solve the mystery of her mum’s disappearance, once and for all.Cath finds herself thrust into the sordid underbelly of the ’80s music scene, when rock and roll played second fiddle to the sex and drugs.Along the way, she also finds herself playing a new role: unwitting replacement lead singer for Décolleté on their first tour in over 30 years.Can Cath find the killers before she becomes their next victim?
A very good read with good characters. Lots of twists and turns. 4*.

Killer in the Crowd is a fun fast read. The story begins with Cath Edgley. who was raised by her aunt Trish when her mother disappeared when she was seven years old. Cath is a teacher at a girls school and lives an under the radar life.

Cath wants to know what happened to her mother. Cath's mother was a member of a punk rock band known as Décolleté with lead singer "Betzy Blac." Trying to discover what happened Cath reaches out to fellow band mates for information about why she disappeared. Soon the man she believes to be her father, also a singer, has died of a drug overdose. Could it be true that both her parents are dead?

In order to find the truth, Cath will pose as her mother's stage persona to find out the truth about the man she believed to be her father, what happened to her mother and others are in danger as the truth comes out.

This really was a fun story about the lives of punk rockers and the lives they led. Cath was a great character hiding inside herself only to discover who she really is while finding the truth about the people closest to her.

I really enjoyed this book it was well written with a good storyline and well developed characters. It was fun, twisty, unpredictable and kept me guessing until the end. I will definitely read this book again and will be looking for more from the author in the future.

I really wanted to like this book, I love a good mystery and spend so much of my time at gigs but quite frankly it’s one of the worst books I have read in a long time, I give it 2 stars because the premise is good so don’t want to be unkind

This thriller has it all! A famous rock band, a missing person, murder, mystery and romance all tied up in one great intriguing read!

Cath Edgley was raised by her aunt Trish. Her mom, famous music sensation "Betzy Blac" suddenly disappeared 30-years ago. The world was stunned by this occurrence. Investigators searched every lead, but the missing person case went cold.

Cath, now an adult, desperately wants answers in her mom's case. She is willing to do anything to get them. Was "Betzy Blac" murdered? What was the motive? Where is her body? How can a world famous rock star simply vanish without a clue?

Phil Johnson's book "Killer in the Crowd" will be published March 31, 2022. Reader's will enjoy this curvy spine-tingler. I loved the finely woven romance in this novel. It adds depth to the protagonist and is "Oh La' La'" good!

Thank you NetGalley and Burning Chair Ltd, for allowing me to review this e-book. Phil Johnson gave me a fun and thrilling ride in the lives of his interesting characters.

I've been on a bit of a murder mystery book kick lately, so it seemed only natural to add in a mystery that takes place with a band!  The book follows Cath Edgley.  She may seem like a boring school teacher, but her Mom is a punk legend and so was her Dad.  After the man she believed to be her father is found dead, many believe he may have been murdered, including Cath.

Cath's Mom, Betzy Blac, has been missing since Cath was 7 years old.  No one knows if she just ran off or if she died.  Cath decides she is going to get to the bottom of it all and starts receiving mysterious texts telling her to "trust no one".  Cath finds herself in and out of sticky situations but ultimately ends up suspended from her school teacher job and joins her Mom's old band, Decollete, for a reunion of sorts.  Cath thinks that if the band is back together, with her playing the part of Betzy, they can get the information they need to find out who killed Raven and where her Mom is.

There are a LOT of different (shady) characters in this book so it makes it a bit difficult to actually have a theory of "whodunit" and many think that Cath is just following a conspiracy theory and that the deaths aren't at all connected.  Once I got into the meat of this story, it was really hard to put it down, so many twists and turns as we followed Cath into trying to figure out what happened to her Mom.  Quite the roller coaster of a book and if you're into murder mystery and concerts, this ones for you.

I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

An enjoyable, easy read. The plot is easy to follow but is a little unbelievable. The whodunnit aspect of the story does keep you guessing as I had no clue what the outcome was going to be! The language used is repetitive is places which makes it a little corny but that doesn’t take the fun out of the book. A definite recommended read from me which would be ideal for holidays!

So, ok, some fun stuff and some stuff that really just doesn't beat scrutiny. The abandoned daughter of a punk rock star who has vanished has an opportunity to further her search for her mother when then rock star she thought was her father was murdered. Her uptight boarding school isn't ok and suspends her, so she has time to get the band back together and set out to find some answers.

So far, so good. It gets funky when the rubber meets the road, rehearsals go too well, crowds are too appreciative and the 'half' brother is just not a character in real life. That part of the story makes the action a little harder to accept but the story moves along.

The reasons for the things that happen seem a bit far fetched, and hard to accept someone would choose to handle things they way they did. But as fairy tales go, not too bad. 3.5 stars

Good book! very interesting storyline! This book had a bit of everything! It had suspense, intrigue, action ,drama, and a great who done it! It brought back so many memories of the 80's hair band concert days! Lol I will definitely recommend reading this one! Its well worth reading!