The Vinyl Detective: Written in Dead Wax by: Andrew Cartmel

 

When you’re writing a mystery story, the eventual reveal must be something which can be seen by the audience, but must not be too obvious too soon, or else the twist become ineffective in buildup.  That is perhaps the largest flaw with Andrew Cartmel’s The Vinyl Detective: Written in Dead Wax, where the reason that people are after a collection of fourteen records by a company which only lasted about a year in publishing.  The conceit is that written on each of the records are two letters which when placed together end up reading a message.  This is what drives the last third of the book’s plot as Cartmel falls into the trap of having this essentially be two separate books in one.  The book is divided into “Side One” and “Side Two” to make up a whole with the idea being that the main character, the Vinyl Detective, navigating finding one of these records for an international client before being asked to track down all fourteen records.  The “Side Two” portion of the book is the one which falls really flat, as Cartmel makes the big twist and explanation for a loud bang on the master tape of one track be part of a very obvious twist which when eventually revealed doesn’t seem to have any repercussions on the rest of the book.  It’s a portion which just drives towards a finish before kind of stopping dead in its tracks, without any real resolution for the main character, his relationship with the two women who hired him, and his newfound fame from the first two thirds of the book.

 

The Vinyl Detective as a character is at the very least a fun, pulpy protagonist.  Cartmel is clearly inspired by detective stories and the like, having this narration style that should be soundtracked with jazz.  He is never really named, yet is at least given motivation and character, even if there isn’t much of a backstory.  He’s protective of his collection and his two cats, will take up any case, and is kind of seen as a joke as someone who tracks down rare records.  It’s an interesting protagonist for Cartmel, though he is a very static one throughout, moving from relationship to relationship without really feeling like there is any growth.  This is odd considering Cartmel’s previous work all being large scale science fiction adventures critiquing the worst aspects of humanity and how people grow and change throughout their lives.  It makes Written in Dead Wax feel very different, although that’s something which Cartmel makes apparent to what he’s doing with this writing.  He’s writing something small scale, and to reflect that the main character is small scale.  The relationship he builds with Nevada, the woman who initially hires him, is perhaps the best that Cartmel puts in until “Side Two” where that falls apart.  There is a reveal which plays into several tropes and the Detective immediately moving on but then flip flopping back to Nevada just seems weird.  It’s very much Cartmel not doing a fully developed story in what is essentially his first non-Doctor Who novel.

 

Overall, The Vinyl Detective: Written in Dead Wax is honestly a book that is described as fine.  There’s still that great writing style which gets the reader invested, even if the plot feels quite thin and the last third feels a lot like a book that needed to be its own thing.  Though as an introduction to a standalone series of mysteries it works fine, even if there are improvements to be made with the rest of the worldbuilding and characters.  5/10.