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#BookReview The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce #20BooksOfSummer20

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TheMusicShopAbout the Book

1988. Frank owns a music shop. It is jam-packed with records of every speed, size and genre. Classical, jazz, punk – as long as it’s vinyl he sells it. Day after day Frank finds his customers the music they need.

Then into his life walks Ilse Brauchmann. Ilse asks Frank to teach her about music. His instinct is to turn and run. And yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with her pea-green coat and her eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems. And Frank has old wounds that threaten to re-open and a past he will never leave behind …

Format: Hardcover (336 pages)    Publisher: Doubleday
Publication date: 13th July 2017 Genre: Fiction

Find The Music Shop on Goodreads

Purchase links*
Amazon UK | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

The Music Shop has been on my bookshelf ever since I heard Rachel Joyce talk about the book at Henley Literary Festival in 2017. You can read my review of the event here. Now I’ve finally read it, I’m kicking myself that it took me so long.

Set mainly in 1988, the book conjures up a vivid picture of that time – lava lamps, Ritz crackers, high street shops such and Dolcis and Tammy, using the Yellow Pages to find a tradesman. I know I’m showing my age now but I can remember browsing in record shops for the latest vinyl releases. This passage especially, as Frank takes delivery of new stock, evoked such memories.

“Boxes of vinyl began to arrive the next morning. Rare original pressings, bootleg copies, white-label promotional labels, as well as entire box-set collections. Seven- and 12-inch singles in the shape of hearts, birds and hats; limited-edition releases on coloured discs in blue, red, orange, yellow, white and even multicoloured splatter. Soundtrack records, popular favourites. World music, second-hand classics, demos. Rare mono recordings, limited-edition audiophile pressings… Plain sleeves, picture sleeves. Albums with posters, fold-out flaps and signed covers.”

In the residents of Unity Street, Rachel Joyce has created a fabulous community of diverse individuals who nevertheless feel a growing sense of togetherness, especially when outside forces threaten to bring unwanted change. “Here they were, living together on Unity Street, trying to make a difference in the world, knowing they couldn’t, but still doing it anyway.”

The book has a wonderful cast of secondary characters such as Maud, the owner of a tattoo parlour, Father Anthony, the owner of a religious gift shop, “Saturday” Kit who helps out in Frank’s shop, Mrs Roussos and her chihuahua…oh, and not forgetting the matchmaking waitress of The Singing Teapot.

I loved the little stories about the customers whom Frank helps with music choices, such as the man who ‘only listens to Chopin’. Frank’s uncanny ability to prescribe the music others need for their current predicament leads to some unexpected choices. My favourites were his selection of the perfect lullaby for a sleepless child and an album to rekindle a marriage that has lost his spark. In fact, I could have read a whole book of such stories.

Interspersed with events in Unity Street are Frank’s memories of his childhood growing up with his mother, Peg. Sadly for Frank, Peg lacked the conventional instincts of motherhood – “show Peg a boundary, she crashed straight through it” – but she was at least responsible for inspiring his passion for music through her wonderful stories about composers and musicians. As the reader will discover, she’s also the reason Frank cannot bear to listen to a particular piece of music. Unfortunately, Peg’s actions will come to influence Frank’s relationships with others as he grows up. “Frank was so busy loving other people he had no room to accommodate the fact that someone might turn round one day and love him back.”

Will meeting Ilse Brauchmann change things for Frank? Obviously, I’m not going to tell you but all I will say is, that if you’ve read any of Rachel Joyce’s previous books, you’ll know she has a knack for taking readers on an emotional journey. The Music Shop is no exception. I was advised by a fellow blogger who had read the book to have tissues ready at the end; they were right.

The Music Shop is just the sort of warm, uplifting story perfect for the times we’re living through. As Kit says at one point, “I can’t imagine a world without Frank”. Hallelujah to that.

In three words: Charming, funny, uplifting

Try something similar (in the spirit of Frank): In My Life: A Music Memoir by Alan Johnson

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116433648_3250124005044448_5505438321894254958_oAbout the Author

Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, The Music Shop and a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow Garden & Other Stories. Her work has been translated into thirty-six languages.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Rachel was awarded the Specsavers National Book Awards ‘New Writer of the Year’ in December 2012 and shortlisted for the ‘UK Author of the Year’ in 2014.

Rachel has also written over twenty original afternoon plays and adaptations of the classics for BBC Radio 4, including all the Bronte novels. She moved to writing after a long career as an actor, performing leading roles for the RSC, the National Theatre and Cheek by Jowl. She lives with her family in Gloucestershire. (Photo credit: Facebook author page)

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#BookReview A Little London Scandal by Miranda Emmerson

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9780008244330About the Book

Nik felt the mistake in his bones. The man in the snakeskin suit reached down towards him and pulled Nik upright by the collar of his coat. Nik didn’t see what happened next but he felt the wall. He cried out and then someone hit him and he closed his eyes and waited for it to be over.

London, 1967. Nik Christou has been a rent boy since he was 15. He knows the ins and outs of Piccadilly Circus, how to spot a pretty policeman and to interpret a fleeting glance. One summer night his life is turned upside down, first by violence and then by an accusation of murder.

Anna Treadway, fleeing the ghosts of her past, works as a dresser in Soho’s Galaxy theatre. She has learned never to place too much trust in the long arm of the law and, convinced Nik is innocent, she determines to find him an alibi.

Merrian Wallis, devoted wife to an MP with a tarnished reputation, just wants proof that her husband couldn’t have been involved.

But how do you recognise the truth when everyone around you is playing a role – and when any spark of scandal is quickly snuffed out by those with power? As Anna searches for clues amongst a cast of MPs, actors, members of gentlemen’s clubs and a hundred different nightly clients, will anyone be willing to come forward and save Nik from his fate?

Format: Hardcover (288 pages) Publisher: 4th Estate
Publication date: 20th August 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction, crime

Find A Little London Scandal on Goodreads

Purchase links*
Amazon UK | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

I really enjoyed Miranda Emmerson’s debut novel, Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars. In fact, it was one of the first books I reviewed on this blog. Many of the characters from that book make a return in A Little London Scandal, although it works perfectly well as a standalone. There’s Ottmar, owner of the Alabora cafe, and the actors and backstage staff at the Galaxy Theatre where Anna works as a dresser. Sergeant Barnaby Hayes, whose partnership with Anna enabled them to solve the mystery at the heart of the first book, also returns although his involvement in that earlier case has not been without its consequences.

Anna’s boyfriend, Louis (or Aloysius if you’re being formal) has less of a starring role in this book, having returned to Jamaica on family business. Theirs is a long-distance relationship for the time being, conducted by means of the exchange of touching postcards and letters.

Anna’s innate sense of justice means she cannot stand by when Nik, whom she knows from the Alabora cafe, is arrested and charged with a murder she is convinced he did not commit. She enlists Barnaby’s help again and, alternating with the progress of their investigation, we learn the story of Nik’s troubled teenage years and adolescence. It takes the reader to some dark places inhabited by seedy individuals – about as much fun as the prospect of a colonoscopy.

Given Anna’s occupation, I liked how the theme of performance or playing a part is woven into the book. With homosexuality yet to be decriminalized, many are forced to hide their sexuality and to pretend to be something they are not for fear of arrest or blackmail. (It made me think of the film Victim starring Dirk Bogarde, who in reality led a somewhat double life.)

Merrian, wife of MP Richard Wallis, knows all about playing a part – the part of perfect wife and mother. She’s a really sympathetic, believable character who has sacrificed a lot in order to advance her husband’s career and present the outside world with the picture of a traditional family. What she knows, or suspects, about her husband’s secrets she keeps to herself until, she too, is drawn into Anna’s search for justice and shows unexpected mettle.

I loved the way Anna’s natural empathy, drawing on what we learn about her own troubled past, enabled her to gain Nik’s confidence and trust. And I admired her bold, if slightly reckless, willingness to take action.

The book perfectly captures the atmosphere of 1960s London – Carnaby Street, miniskirts, late night jazz clubs and coffee bars. (There’s even a scene in a Wimpy bar. Remember those?) The story takes the reader on a journey from exclusive gentlemen’s clubs, via Wormwood Scrubs and the nightlife haunts of down and outs and rent boys, to illicit music events on Eel Pie Island. (Incidentally, this is the second book I’ve read featuring Eel Pie Island as a location. The first was The Secret Life of Alfred Nightingale by Rebecca Stonehill.)

The book has lovely little touches like the quirky chapter headings, my favourite being “Very Expensive Penguins”. (Sorry, Miranda, there was no way I could get Jerry’s third word into my review.)

A Little London Scandal combines an intriguing mystery with a vivid portrait of London at a time of change. I received an advance review copy courtesy of 4th Estate via NetGalley.

In three words: Spirited, stylish, colourful

Try something similar: A Messy Affair (Lena Szarka #3) by Elizabeth Mundy

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About the Author

Miranda Emmerson is a playwright and author living in Wales. She has written numerous drama adaptations for BBC Radio 4 as well as some highly-acclaimed original drama. Her debut novel, Miss Treadway and The Field of Stars, was published by 4th Estate in 2017.

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