Customer Reviews

While My Guitar Gently Weeps: A JP Kinkaid Mystery (JP Kinkaid Mysteries)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's a good mystery, and a fine story, and has vivid characters you love to be around. What makes it extraordinarily compelling though, is the rock and roll: how do session folk sit in? How do famous rockers turn up on each other's recordings? There's a great amount - all of it fascinating - about rock guitars, who makes them, how they work, and how they sound. There's a lot about coping with middle age and illness when all you want to do is rock & roll. It culminates in Bree and JP's wedding, and I hope with all my heart that this series gets to film so we can see and hear it live. Just fabulous.

Last year, I was pleasantly surprised by "Rock and Roll Never Forgets," the first of Deborah Grabien's mystery series featuring aging rocker JP Kinkaid, his longtime girlfriend Bree Godwin, and his bandmates from the legendary group Blacklight. The second entry, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," delivers on the promise of the first.

While the mystery--involving the murder of an egotistical singer/guitarist for a local San Francisco band--is perfectly serviceable, with some clever twists, it's Grabien's depiction of the music world that makes this series compelling. The ability to convey the excitement and power of music in words is a rare talent. Whether debating the merits of certain classic guitars or describing the differing approaches individual singers take to a song, Grabien really captures the kinetic energy that goes into performance and creation. Her well-realized cast of characters also add color and vibrancy, from the gifted, somewhat lazy, but basically decent JP whose distinctive voice fuels the narration to the stalwart Bree to the outrageously sexy Mac Sharpe, Blacklight's lead singer who--at fifty-eight--is still "hotter than the surface of the sun."

The only caveat I would offer regarding "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is that it gains much more from being read after "Rock and Roll Never Forgets," just as a good song sounds better when you hear it from the beginning rather than when you come in on the middle. Highly recommended for any reader who loves mysteries and music, especially rock and roll.

I've been a fan of Grabien's work for years, and her latest, the second of her Kinkaid Chronicles series, is just as good as I've come to expect from her. The sheer excitement of rock and roll, an insider's look at the life of a superstar rock band, and a complex mystery are all wrapped together, narrated by guitarist J.P. Kinkaid. The main characters introduced in this series' first book continue to develop as unique personalities, while the new characters are well-rounded and interesting. J.P. and his longtime companion, Bree, deal with a longterm relationship that hasn't settled into a rut, as well as medical issues (multiple sclerosis and cancer) while helping solve a brutal murder.

If you like rock & roll, well-made guitars, mysteries, or love stories--buy this book. You won't be disappointed, but you will be looking forward to the next volume of the Kinkaid Chronicles.

Nobody captures the down and dirty world of rock and roll like Grabien. The characters are blazingly alive, the plot zips and moves like the best piece of music, and the mystery is tight as a guitar string. Loved, loved, loved this one.

I loved the in depth view of the music world, how individual musicians as well as bands collaborate to bring us the music we love. I also love the suspense and puzzle of the mystery, no surprise there, because this author excels at suspense.

i received a deborah grabien book about 1 year ago....awesome reading...so....i found out she wrote "while my guitar gently weep"....i had to have it

In San Francisco, someone uses a guitar to hammer the head of Bombardier lead vocalist Vinny Fabiano. No one seems to mourn the death of Vinny, who alienated everyone including his band mates, but everyone grieves the death of the guitar, custom made by the great artist Bruno Baines.

The late Vinny even managed to insult MRI specialist Bree Godwin, band mate JP Kincaid's old lady. JP and Bree remain amazed that the killer would use such a murder weapon. They are not amazed to learn Vinny's prized Zemaitis guitar is missing. Soon afterward, Vinny's guitar technician Rocco Galliano is also murdered. Not wanting to become part of a Christie And Then There Were None, JP and his mates investigate.

The second Kincaid mystery (see ROCK AND ROLL NEVER FORGETS) is an enjoyable amateur sleuth mystery enhanced by a fascinating look at guitar making although that detracts from the whodunit. The lead pair has health issues with JP dealing with multiple sclerosis and Bree struggling with a cancer scare , but unlike guitar manufacturing the illnesses augment the investigation as they make the inquiry that more difficult. Fans will rock with Kincaid as he and Bree follow the chords.

Harriet Klausner

I had pretty much the opposite reaction from the reviewer who saw this as a male fantasy. To me, it read more like an obviously female author's fantasy of how a male character would think and feel about his "old lady". I have never read a book written by a male author in which the (male) protagonist obsessed to this extent over the perfection of a female character, much less a female character to whom he is practically married. It seemed to me like wishful thinking - a real guy would spend a lot more time thinking about...whatever (guitars, golf, cars, the stock market, what's on TV) and not spend every minute thinking about how brave, yet wounded and fragile, his girlfriend of the past 30 years is.

Plus...after 30 years, shouldn't she actually grow up a bit and stop being little miss fragile wounded? I mean,she'd be well into her 40s by now (if her father died when she was a toddler back in the early 60s, she'd be pushing 50), you'd think she could get over whatever relationship disappointments she suffered as a teenager (statute of limitations on those runs out, oh, about age 25). Not to mention, while she could still be very attractive in her late cougarhood, chances are that not every male in the vicinity would be panting after her.

San Francisco author Grabien's series about rock guitarist JP Kinkaid continues to offer a fabulous backstage look at the music world.
Singer/guitarist Vinny Fabiano, who until his untimely demise showed no redeeming traits, has been killed. Among his sins: making an obnoxious pass at JP's girlfriend, and backing down only when he realizes Bree is JP's "property."
Yet the whole John-Bree relationship, which along with the murder investigation and John's ongoing battle with multiple sclerosis is central to the book, is problematic.
She never seems a real person, but rather an idealized projection of a girlfriend: fabulously sexy, a trained chef, a willing driver and completely supportive in all situations. The book may have been written by a woman, but this reads like a male fantasy.
For example, take the a scene where John fools with Bree under the dining room table to make it clear to one of the guests, the investigating policeman, that Bree is not available. Hello! Can you say "property claim?"