Book review: Dead Girl Walking

This long-awaited return of Jack Parlabane sees the journalist down-on-his-luck and desperate for work, when he gets a call from the sister of an old friend, says Bridie Pritchard.

Dead Girl Walking

Christopher Brookmyre Little

Brown, £18.99; ebook, £9.49

She wants him to find Heike Gunn, the talented but diva-like genius behind Savage Earth Heart, who has gone missing in Berlin on the last day of their European tour.

Interspersed with Parlabane’s search in flashback is an account in blog form of the band’s new violinist joining the band and what she makes of finding herself in this rock and roll world after growing up on Shetland playing traditional and classical fiddle. Brookmyre’s story is rooted in the real world. His journalist lives in a post-Leveson world but has the smart-mouth tendencies of private eyes of an earlier age.

Readers of the series will be interested in seeing how Parlabane is dealing with the break-up of his relationship and being on the wrong end of a scandal. But you needn’t have read any of the previous books first before plunging into the seedier side of the music business.