Customer Reviews

Sweet Man Is Gone (Five Star Mystery Series) (Five Star Mystery Series) (Five Star First Edition Mystery)

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The New York metro blues scene forms a colorful backdrop for Peggy Ehrhart's first mystery--and, I hope, the first of a long series. Maxx is a gutsy and likeable amateur sleuth, passionate about her music and loyal to her fellow musicians. But is one of them a murderer? I enjoyed spending time in her cool world and seeing if I could solve the mystery before she did!

--Eileen Watkins, New Jersey

I loved the title even before I read the book. Sweet man is gone and we want to find out if it was murder or suicide. The police think it's suicide and our heroine thinks it's murder.

The story is woven around the jazz scene: the practice rooms, the people, the little clubs where they play while hoping for a break.

I enjoyed it all. I can't wait for the next book.

Peggy Ehrhart's Sweet Man is Gone hits a great groove. Introducing female amateur sleuth Maxx Maxwell, the novel gives promise of a fine new series that uses music as its backdrop. I confess to being a bit skeptical at first of the use of present tense for the narrative--something more commonly found in "literary" fiction. However, I was soon won over, largely due to the charm of Maxx's voice. Ehrhart also demonstrates a real insider's feel for the world of music: especially the smoky subculture of the blues (though there's jazz, rock, and even some country & western, too). I look forward to more entries in the series.

Ever since guitarist Jimmy Nashville joined Maximum Blues, Maxx Maxwell's blues band, she's had visions of them hitting the big time.

Unfortunately before that can happen, Jimmy Nashville falls to his death from his ninth floor apartment. The police believe it was suicide and have closed the case. Maxx is not convinced and sets out to find evidence that it was murder to convince the police. In the meantime she must find a new guitarist before her band falls apart.

She begins talking to Monique, Jimmy's girlfriend, to try to learn all she can about his life and who might have killed him. Stan, the guitar player she replaced with Jimmy, is constantly showing up and trying to get back into the band.

Can Maxx discover the truth without putting herself in danger and still have time to keep her band together?

This was a great cozy mystery. It's a fast read. I really liked Maxx. She has a real heart for her music, but she also cares about people. The author's knowledge of the blues music scene was very apparent as well.

I highly recommend this book.

Maxx Maxwell, blues singer by night and waitress by day is a welcome addition to the mystery genre. SWEET MAN IS GONE takes the reader into the world of musicians pouring their souls into a beloved form of music unique to American culture.
Jimmy Nashville has fallen or been pushed from his apartment window just before Maxx Maxwell arrives to pick him up for a career opening gig. The show must go on, but when Maxx arrives at the Hot Spot someone has called and cancelled their performance.
Maxx is convinced Jimmy's death isn't an accident, but the police won't listen to her. The pace runs with Dom's drum roll as Maxx struggles to save both her band, Maxximum Blues and prove to the detective that investigate the death he overlooked a few clues.
Let's hear it for Peggy Ehrhart and Maxx; we look forward to the next session.
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Blues singer Maxx Maxwell believes her band Maximum Blues is going to hit the big time ever since guitarist Jimmy Nashville joined the group. After practicing at the Feedback Studio for a gig in the Village, Jimmy gets into a dispute with a tall guy, but nothing comes of it.

The next night, Maxx drives from Hackensack to Manhattan to pick up Jimmy and continue on the club where they are performing. Instead she learns Jimmy fell from his ninth floor apartment. She also learns someone cancelled the gig. Unable to resist especially when the cops declare Jimmy committed suicide, Maxx investigates who gave her band the blues. She thinks he was murdered probably by someone who knew him.

This is a fun cozy although realistically Maxx has no time nor should be investigating what happened to her guitarist even if she was attracted to him. Still fans will enjoy the merger of music and murder as the heroine is a delightful caring individual who believes she and her blues band can make it while the support cast is solid as they bring to life mostly the music industry from the rarely seen viewpoint of the dire straits struggle of bands trying to make it while the musicians keep their day job.

Harriet Klausner

Sweet Man is Gone has a gutsy and sympathetic protagonist, Maxx, a lady who sings the blues (literally). This book provides reading enjoyment as well as giving the reader an inside look at the world of blues and the making and breaking of blues bands.

Ehrhart immerses the reader in a world of musicians, what they go thorough to get their gigs, and the tribulations of trying to get your band to the point where it pays the bills. Never fear if you're not an avid music fan. Her allusions and descriptions are transparent and easy to grasp. Ehrhart, herself a guitarist, nails this world down cold, then adds the literary challenge of an amateur sleuth wanting to solve the murder -- make that two -- of friends.

The atmosphere and ambience of Sweet Man Gone are right on, from the dingy bars of the Lower East Side to the cheap pads of the Upper West Side to the rundown flats in Hackensack. Nostalgia flowed over me as I recalled streets I walked and places I hung out long ago. Her plot flows seamlessly -- and often dreamlike -- as she drives her clunker in and out of the city, from practice studios to blues bars to crash pads. Interestingly, there's not a false note of irony, cynicism, or authorial disbelief in her writing. Hers is a beautiful portrayal of a lonely woman just trying to make it while loving the blues too much.

The plot unfolds smoothly, building bit by bit as a novel of character evolves into a fast-paced crescendo of discovery. And, like a classic whodunit, the killer isn't revealed until the last pages.

Sweet Man Gone is a very refreshing antidote for those suffering an overdose on Dennis LeHane, Dashiell Hammett, James Patterson and other hardboiled crime writers.