I'm not sure this if this is quite the "great punk novel" it's been blurbed as, but it certainly is a page-turner of a story that flirts with the crime genre and is partially set amidst England's punk and post-punk music scene of the late '70s and early '80s. The story revolves around Eddie, a 30ish slacker freelance journalist with a serious alcohol problem and few prospects beyond the next writing gig. We meet him in 2001 in the midst of a steady downward slide, when he comes up with the idea of writing a book about a forgotten band that disintegrated at the height of its popularity in 1981. What makes the story particularly compelling is that the band's singer disappeared just after his wife committed suicide, leaving a tantalizing mystery for Eddie to write about.
And thus Eddie is off, calling contacts, interviewing the former band members, managers, friends, etc. in an attempt to piece together the story of what all went wrong. His contemporary research alternates with flashbacks to the formation of the band and it's brief history. This is a sensible cut and paste technique that keeps either era from getting stale, while making the connections between the two periods stand out. It also allows the author to build in a number of cliffhanger chapter endings that keep the pages turning at a fast and furious pace. It's an awfully compelling read, as Eddie slowly gathers more and more information, and sorts through the myths, lies, and nostalgia to get at what really happened back then.
However, it's also pretty obvious that the singer is still alive and that the plot is all building up to Eddie's discovery of him, and when that does happen, it's a little anti-climactic. It's also somewhat implausible that no one would have learned where he was, especially in the aftermath of his wife's death. But you just kind of have to go with it. Eddie is also a little bit too naive, and it's equally obvious to the reader that there is someone working subtly against him, and that person's identity isn't too hard to guess (although impossible to confirm until the end). Fortunately, the rest of the characters from both periods are pretty well drawn, and it's nice to read a novel based in the music world that has interesting female characters.
On the whole, it's a pretty decent read if you're interested in the English music scene of the late '70s and early '80s, others may not find much to connect with. Unsworth is a music journalist, and she's got that angle pretty well covered. The missing persons case is reasonably well done, as Eddie pieces things together and enlists the help of a continental op. Some of the subplots aren't as successful, especially his relationship with his girlfriend of 10 years. Ultimately, I enjoyed the book (until the very end), but I can't think of very many friends I would recommend it to.
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