A review by urlphantomhive
Written in Dead Wax by Andrew Cartmel

5.0

4.5 Stars

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When I first came across this novel in the bookstore, I expected to like it. It sounded very British, and the recommendation from Ben Aaronovitch, author of the Rivers of London series - another favourite of mine, made it all sound very good. There was a single slight hesitation on my side though as I don't know the first thing about vinyl, and this being the Vinyl Detective, I wasn't sure this wouldn't bother my reading experience.

I needn't worry, because despite having already quite some expectations, they were still exceeded by Written in Dead Wax. One thing for sure, the author loves his vinyl, but the book is written in such a way that you don't need to love (or know anything about it really) to understand why the character loves it. This genre of books, I pick up for the witty descriptions, London in general and some absurdism on the side, as the mystery, also in this case, was not the strongest. However, I do think that all the rest more than compensate for that, and the only real downside is the fact that it takes so long before the next book comes out!