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Meg Chittenden, author of Dying to Sing, says:
Keith Snyder is an original and a man of many parts--author, musician,
performer, computer whiz. (Also yet another DL charmer.) So it's not
surprising that his first novel is unlike anyone else's. Show Control
begins online, revealing on MUSE public Forum that performance artist Monica
Gleason was pronounced DOA after being fatally wounded by a laser during a
performance of her work " Light Dance," at the TechnoArts conference in the
Pasadena Convention Center. According to the police suicide is suspected.
Suicide by laser. I told you it was different.
Hi-Tech is a character in this story. There's a lot of computer stuff.
And some stuff about new music technology. Occasionally, I understood it
and was proud.. When I didn't understand, it was my failing, not the
novel's. I'm not going to try to explain any of it. Ask Keith.
This was a totally engrossing read, ranging from solid plotting to areas
where the story sort of teetered on the brink of lunacy then snapped back
like a rubber band to make perfect sense. Well, sense in an Angelino
fashion, that is. (I mean this whole paragraph as a compliment.)
I haven't spent much time in L.A. since the sixties, but apparently some
things haven't changed all that much. Jason Keltner, a musician recovering
from divorce, Martin Altamirano, an artist, and Robert Goldstein, an actor,
are an unlikely trio of sleuths, but laid back with it. Jason starts the
investigation into Monica's death in a casual way, something to do to take
his mind off his ex-wife. He'd known Monica for a whole day. But then
someone shoots at him and Robert, and Jason takes it personally. Together
the three friends set out to solve the mystery of Monica's death, and when
the bad guys take exception, the trio declares war.
Which leads to some very interesting battles using unusual and very creative
weapons, and a bang-up ending that awakened all of my dormant claustrophobia.
It's difficult at times to know if this trio is going to manage to
survive--they are almost in as much danger from the food they eat and the
lifestyle they adopt for the duration as they are from the bad guys.
As I said, an unusual novel with unusual characters. A terrific read.
Hilarious in spots. I liked it a lot. I hope there's going to be another soon.
--Meg Chittenden
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