What do You think about The Day The Music Died (1999)?
I should have enjoyed this book more than I did - the description of it sounded like a book I'd enjoy. I think one of the problems I had with this is that the characters all seemed very one-dimensional and there didn't seem to be any real reason that they acted as they did, except for plot purposes. It also seemed incredibly rushed - here's the plot, here are a bunch of complications - ok, that's enough, here it is all tied up with a bow on top.On the other hand, I thought there was some potential here, too. I think I'll probably read the second book in the series - it may be that now that we've got the basic characters in the small town established and a lot of background already set, the plot may be less pat.
—Sandy
This is a very special 'private eye' series built around a lawyer and special court investigator, Sam McCain, in a small town in the midwest (Iowa) in the fifties and sixties. I absolutely love this series for several reasons:1. the wonderful immersion into a different time, spanning a decade from the late fifties to the late sixties. The descriptions are detailed, evocative, engaging and realistic. They are exceptionally well done.2. The protagonist is a likeable average joe, who is easy to identify with and tells the stories in the first person. His back story is as engaging and interesting as the murder mysteries he gets involved in, and has become the main reason why I have become hooked on this series.3. There are plenty of connections to the pop culture of the fifties and sixties, which is a bonus for any lover of music, books, cinema and culture of the period.4. The mysteries are well crafted and keep you guessing until the end.5. Every single one of the entries in these series is excellent without exception and well worth the read.Give this a try, you won't regret it. I read all 9 books in 2 months and can't wait for the 10th entry, 'Riders' on the Storm', that will appear in October 2014! I hope Mr. Gorman gets the opportunity to write several more before he retires.
—Michael Schramme
The Day the Music Died is the first book in Ed Gorman's series featuring perpetually broke lawyer/P.I. Sam McCain. It was published in 1998 but is now being re-released on Dec. 31th, 2013 by both Mysterious Press and Open Roads Media.. Not coincidentally, this makes it my last review for 2013.I must confess that I decided to read this for the title. I love fiction that has a basis in musical pop culture. For those who don't know, the title is a line from Don Mclean's song American Pie which refers to the airplane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper. All of the titles of the Sam McCain novels come from song lines or titles. So my first and biggest disappointment was that Ed Gorman does not use the music very much or as much as I would suspect. The day Buddy Holly dies is the day this mystery begins but very little comes from this tie-in. More disturbingly, the protagonist Sam McCain relates as much feeling to the death of his hero as to the death of his friends which is almost none. I know McCain is a typical macho P. I. but a little insight might have been nice.But laying off of that peeve, I have to admit that this mystery is rather entertaining if a little predictable and flat. McCain finds the spoiled son of his boss, the judge in a small town, with his wife who he presumably shot. The spoiled son then kills himself. it looks like a clear-cut murder/suicide but of course Sam is suspicious.Here we come to the main strength of this novel. Sam investigates and find himself addressed many different people with different strokes in this small town. The authors strong point is making the town and the interactions of its inhabitants a prime part of the puzzle. Gorman has a good feel of small town life in the 50s and it shows. The author uses some social topics well, placing them nicely in the '50 mentality. As a whole, the characters feel real. Yet individually, they seem like cogs in a wheel showing little dimension. I especially wanted to find out more about our main character besides the fact that he is whining about the girl he will never get...at least not in the first novel. While I enjoyed the novel it just didn't hold me enough to think about reading the rest. So I will never know if he gets Ginger or Mary-Lou. (not the names used in the novel. I just couldn't resist the Gillian's Island reference) Or does he forget about Buddy Holly in the nest few years and start digging the Beatles? I'll never know.
—Marvin
