Good Morning Heartache [Hardcover]

Peter Duchin (Author), John Morgan Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2, 2003

Now Damon and his orchestra are off to L.A. for a gig and some publicity. But when they find themselves two members short of a big band, things turn ugly. The body of their substitute trumpet player is found washed up on the beach. And the dame Damon's had his eye on may not be the starry-eyed gal he thought she was. So Damon sets out with his friend Hercules Platt, ex-cop-turned-sax-player, to find the elusive thread linking these situations-and uncover the hidden truth behind the Hollywood façade...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In their second collaboration (after 2002's Blue Moon), high-society bandleader Duchin and Edgar winner Wilson spin another smooth, celebrity-strewn tale of homicide. In August 1965, Philip Damon and his orchestra are heading to Los Angeles for a gig at the fabled Cocoanut Grove, but his singer is down with a cold, and his trumpet player is caught up in a family emergency. Damon's solution is to offer a job temporarily to Buddy Bixby, a trumpeter and vocalist who's had trouble in the past with drugs. Scandal continues to surround Bixby, but Damon feels he owes the guy a chance for good deeds in the past, a decision that will lead to trouble. Though the memory of his wife's murder four years earlier still lingers, Damon thinks it's time to begin putting the past behind him. Beautiful actress Monica Rivers seems to be just what he needs to put him on the road to recovery, but the suspicious death of Buddy Bixby casts a shadow on everything. Along with ex-cop-turned-sax-player Hercules Platt, Damon digs through the past to find out who wanted Bixby dead, and why. Though the identity of the villain will come as no great surprise, readers will nevertheless enjoy this nostalgic ride through 1960s Hollywood and look forward to seeing more of Damon and Platt.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In this second entry in Duchin and Wilson's series featuring high-society bandleader Peter Damon, the handsome, thirtysomething maestro is leaving his swanky Manhattan digs to lead an engagement at L.A.'s glamorous Cocoanut Grove nightclub. Duchin, himself a renowned society bandleader, paints a highly credible picture of Hollywood life in the mid-1960s, peppering the story with stars of music and film--many real, some fictional. Edgar-winning coauthor Wilson creates a suspenseful plot in which a Chet Baker-like trumpet player is found dead of what initially seems to be a heroin overdose. Damon and his alto sax player, Hercules Platt, investigate the death of the sideman while Platt tries to deal with escalating racial tension in the city's South Central section. Platt's status as a former cop does little to impress the hateful L.A. cops, who can't see past his skin color. Duchin and Wilson brilliantly combine bits of film and music history with a thought-provoking account of bigotry against gays and blacks in a city known for its liberal excesses. Readers will demand an encore. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; 1 edition (December 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 042519180X
• ISBN-13: 978-0425191804
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,925,945 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A MUSICAL MYSTERY WITH HIGH AND LOW NOTES, February 18, 2004

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Good Morning Heartache (Hardcover)

For those who like their mysteries mixed with nostalgia "Good Morning, Heartache" will be right up their alley - more likely Tin Pan Alley as song titles from the 40s are dropped as often as clues.

Following their success with "Blue Moon," society bandleader Peter Duchin and Edgar Award winner John Morgan Wilson have teamed to pen the second in a series (we assume) featuring pianist/bandleader and would-be detective Philip Damon.

Opening with a brief reprise to let readers know what has happened in Damon's life to date we learn that he and his orchestra are headed to Los Angeles for a big six-week run at the Cocoanut Grove and an appearance at producer Sid Zell's 50th anniversary party.

Every band needs a singer and a trumpet player, which is what Damon's orchestra suddenly found itself without. Gorgeous Gloria, fabulous gal vocalist, has a raspy throat and the regular trumpeter has been faced with a family emergency. Thus, Damon turns to Buddy Bixby. A once heralded jazz prodigy who can both play and sing - not an easy choice as Buddy is a known addict and recent jail resident. Nonetheless, options are limited so Buddy's on board, much to the consternation of Hercules Platt, former police detective and current sax player.

The group has barely focused their eyes on La-La-Land when Buddy turns up murdered and Damon has fallen head over piano for Monica Rivers, who is rumored to be on the brink of major stardom.

"Good Morning, Heartache" intrigues with name dropping as well as a cast of imaginative characters, most of whom are to put it kindly duplicitous. Perhaps the most endearing of all is Beatrice, a rather heavy set motherly screen writer who is dating a rabbi. She is "a tall woman of considerable heft, formidable in appearance, with an informed intelligence that could sometimes be intimidating. But behind her imposing manner was a warm and affectionate bubee, the kind of large, busty woman with wide hips and jiggling arms that knew how to give a friend a proper hug."

Beatrice is also somewhat of an amateur sleuth who dotes on Damon, mixing him evening cocktails and putting him up in a spare room in her Laurel Canyon home.

There's little time to savor a martini and watch the sun set before another murder occurs. This time it's little Nicky Pembrook, a child star who works at Rosewood Gardens Race Track.
We also meet Lorna Draper, a woman who gives new meaning to the name "stage mother," a none too bright surfer, and a dissolute publicity agent.

Somehow the always observant Platt senses a connection between these murders and other shenanigans. He carefully leads Damon and readers to the right conclusion.

If you like rubbing elbows with Rock Hudson, visiting Toots Shors, and hanging with celebs even if only in print you won't be able to put down "Good Morning, Heartache."

- Gail Cooke

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hollywood, stars, and murder, December 28, 2003

By 

Cynthia Chow (Kaneohe, Hawaii) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Good Morning Heartache (Hardcover)

It's 1965 and New York bandleader Philip Damon, recovered after solving the murder of his wife (Blue Moon), is planning a trip to Hollywood with his band to perform at gig for movie producer Sid Zell. With a vocalist out sick and a trumpeter called out on a family emergency, Philip calls on Buddy Bixby to replace them. Even though Buddy's just been released from prison, has been linked to a recent murder, and is a former junky, Philip feels he owes Buddy since he helped cover for Philip following the death of his wife. Although the performance goes without a hitch, Buddy's body soon washes up and the cops write it off as a drug overdose. Philip refuses to believe that Buddy relapsed, and with the help of his bandmate and former San Francisco Homicide inspector Hercules Platt, Philip dives into Hollywood society where everything is an illusion and no one is who they appear to be.

Authors Wilson and Duchin have created an entertaining look at Hollywood in the sixties that touches on the more serious issues facing those times. Although the sheer volume of celebrity names that are dropped is at times overwhelming, Wilson creates a touching moment with Rock Hudson, who spends as much time acting in his personal life as he does on the movie screen. The investigation is low-keyed at first, as Damon is distracted by his obsession is a starlet and Afro-American Platt must deal with the race riots occurring in his Watts neighborhood. Overall, this is a fun and engaging mystery and its setting in Hollywood during the sixties provides ample red herrings, including hidden pasts, blackmail, financial crimes, and sexual escapades. Good Morning, Heartache is a fun romp through Hollywood and shouldn't be missed.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good fun!, March 7, 2004

By 

nobizinfla "nobizinfla" (Windermere, Florida USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Morning Heartache (Hardcover)

Peter Duchin's "Good Morning Heartache" is a most entertaining mystery-lite set in 1965 LA.

A gig at the Cocoanut Grove brings Philip Damon and his orchestra to the West Coast.

Recovering junkie Buddy Bixby subs for the ailing trumpet player and is working out well when he turns up dead with a needle in his arm. His is the second suspicious death since the band's arrival.

Damon and his ex homicide detective/sax player know foul play they encounter it.

Who stands to benefit from these deaths---a financially stressed "B" movie studio head, an embittered former child actor, a surfing legend/stunt man, a despised paparazzo, Buddy's sister, a highly regarded publicity agent, a remarkably beautiful ingenue or her mother?

It is a great cast interspersed with real life pop icons of the time. Toots Shore, Joe DiMaggio, Gloria DeHaven, Rock Hudson, Art Pepper and the like share the pages with the fictional players.

Accurate attention to details of the mid 1960's layout and life styles of LA and environs add to the pleasure of the novel.

The plot moves seamlessly. Told in the first person, the reader has the same insight and frustration as Philip Damon as to whodunit.

I had strong suspicions (correct) as to the culprit, but was never 100% certain and kept bewildered as to why until the end---always a positive sign.