Underscore (The Vinyl Detective #8)

The Vinyl Detective plunges into the world of Italian movie soundtrack music in his eighth adventure. Expect laughs, LPs, cats and the return of fan favourites, Nevada, Tinkler, Stinky Stanmer and more. Some of the greatest (and grooviest) music ever committed to vinyl has come out of Italy. And some of the greatest music to come out of Italy is the rich diversity of soundtracks composed for the indigenous film industry – particularly for gruesome thrillers known as 'gialli'. The maestros who composed for these include Ennio Morricone, Piero Piccioni, Armand Trovajoli… And Valerius Passeri. He was one of the finest composers of this genre and his original LPs from his 1960s heyday fetch a fortune from collectors. No one disputes that Passeri was a genius… The argument is whether or not he was a murderer. Passeri's mistress was killed in London in the 1960s while he was here on location for a film shoot. There was never enough hard evidence to lead to a prosecution but the stink of scandal has never gone away. Passeri's granddaughter Chloe has come to England to hire the Vinyl Detective. She wants him to negotiate for a collection of her father's LPs. The mastertapes of the albums have been destroyed and she needs immaculate vinyl copies to provide the source for a series of reissues – Chloe's mission is to preserve her grandfather's heritage. And also, it transpires, to clear his name. So it turns out that the Vinyl Detective's real job will be to find out who actually committed a murder – over half a century ago, in Swinging London. But the real killer is not enchanted with the notion of being exposed. And, having killed once before, they see no problem in doing so again.