Tie Die by Max Tomlinson

Late 70’s San Francisco. Two disconnected events from the late 60’s. 1. Colleen Hayes discovers that her husband has been abusing their daughter. In a fit a rage, Collen drives a shiv into his neck, and she gets 10y courtesy of the State of Colorado. Pamela, the daughter, hates mom and eventually finds her way to a commune in rural northern California. 2. Steve Cook was a Brit rock singer on the way up. The Lost Chords' first album just knocked The Stones off the top spot. The boys are up and coming rock gods. All the booze and birds they can handle. Cook wakes up one morning after a mega concert with a dead minor in his bed. He’s barely out of his teens and runs off leaving his band mates behind without a word. Ends up in Brazil. Bye Bye rock god. Meets Lynda. A wannabe music producer. Convinces him to come to SF so she can resurrect his career. They marry. Have a daughter, Melinda, now 11. Steve and Lynda are divorced. 

Colleen has been out on parole and lives in San Francisco. Being a convicted felon kind of limits one’s career options. She’s worked security and now is working as an unlicensed PI. Gets a call about a kidnapped girl. Told to meet the dad at a bar where the dad works with some band and discovers . . . son of a bitch . . . the lead singer, the dad, her client, is THE Steve Cook, whom she had a crush on when The Lost Chords were an item.

He’s renovating a row house. When she interviews him about Melanie, Lynda comes in unannounced and uninvited. Real piece of work is she. There’s a ransom demand and instructions for the delivery. Colleen will make the trade per the kidnapper’s instructions. The swap goes bad. The bag man ends up under a bus, the money gone in a handoff, and no Melanie. Almost as bad, Steve got the money from a loan shark with a short fuse.

As Colleen and Steve go back over what happened, Colleen starts to think that the kidnap was a sham. The main target is not money, but Steve’s catalogue of songs he wrote for The Lost Chords. Hollywood wants one in particular for a movie. The rights fees for that song and the catalogue could bring in millions. Colleen starts tracking Lynda and eventually finds Melanie safe down by the coast, placated with a new horse. She shows photos to Steve and, for the most part, the case is done.

Problem is, I’m only 50% through the book. Lots more to come.

Like a 2^nd kidnapping of Melanie . . . Lynda’s dad (a film and music producer) . . . a titled music promoter in London . . . his old band mates . . . more ransom demands (for real this time) . . . Cook being arrested . . . a shootout in the Mojave.

Tie Die is a welcome glimpse back to the shift from the mod to the disco culture of that era, an era I lived through. It’s the 2^nd in a planned Colleen Hayes series. Most ‘noir’ mysteries have a hard boiled (male) detective and a femme fatale. Those roles are reversed with Colleen and Cook. Tomlinson presents Colleen as a seriously flawed heroine who sees this case as a parallel to her own relationship (or lack thereof) with her own daughter. Maybe solving one will help repair the other? Guessing that’s that’ll be his next book. Tie Dye is a very good noir mystery whose pace really picks up in the 2^nd half of the book. I think I may just try to find the first (Vanishing in the Heights) so I have the full backstory prior to what I suspect will be the all out hunt for her daughter.

The book is published by Oceanview. The only publisher I’ve ever pointed out in the past is Emily Bestler Books. I’ve had very good luck with Oceanview so it’s time I gave them some props, too. 

Published June 2020.

ECD