Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Book Summary and Reviews of Rock of Ages by Timothy Hallinan

Rock of Ages by Timothy Hallinan

Rock of Ages

Junior Bender Mysteries #8

by Timothy Hallinan

  • Critics' Consensus (0):
  • Published:
  • Jun 2022, 336 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

Junior Bender, Los Angeles burglar and off-the-books detective to the felonious, is reminded that rock and roll will never die (no matter how fervently he wishes some of it would) when Hollywood's most dangerous geriatric mobster, Irwin Dressler, retains Junior's investigative services to solve a rather unharmonious problem.

Four of Dressler's old gangster colleagues have put together a national tour of once-popular rock bands they own a piece of: three nights of concerts by guys (and a few gals) who were big shots back in the 1960s and 1970s, and who are now hoping for one more gasp of glory with this nostalgia exhibition. The Rock of Ages tour has proved itself to be anything but a love fest: plenty of the bandmates have been feuding for forty years, and—perhaps unsurprisingly—drugs and bad behavior have created health, wellness, and legal problems for the musicians and managers. Plus there have been two near-fatal accidents that might have been attempted murders.

But they're not what Irwin Dressler is concerned about. It's that someone—one of his own colleagues—is using the tour as a front to steal Dressler's money. And that simply cannot be allowed.

Now the tour has pulled into LA, and Junior has one weekend to figure out who's to blame—a weekend that begins with his tires being slashed, threatening notes left on his car, and a theatrical backdrop falling on a drummer during the truly terrible first set of the first concert. To make things worse, Junior is saddled for the weekend with his teenage daughter, Rina, who lately has been much, much too interested in how her father earns his living. Can Junior recover Dressler's money, prevent a murder, talk his daughter out of pursuing a life of crime, and somehow survive all that bad music?

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"[O]utstanding...Hallinan's sharp-edged prose (a character has 'lips sharp enough to turn a kiss into a paper cut') and facility for making even assassins likable enhance a complex puzzle. Both newcomers and fans will be delighted." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[A] toe-tappingly entertaining comic mystery...The one-liners come as if fired from a gatling gun in this gem of a novel that will leave Junior's fans wishing they'd read it a whole lot slower." - Booklist (starred review)

"The best parts of this blast from the past involve the relations among Rina, Junior as the world's worst babysitter, and Lavender, an aging groupie to whom Rina takes a shine. Other characters from the Razorettes, Lionel and the Pussycats, and Rock of Ages dissolve under a haze of bright lights that overshadow the forgettable mystery and cast readers as semistoned groupies themselves. The ideal audience for this shaggy trip down Memory Lane: die-hard fans who wish rock could go on forever." - Kirkus Reviews

This information about Rock of Ages was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Timothy Hallinan Author Biography

Photo: Munyin Choy

Timothy Hallinan has been nominated for the Edgar, Nero, Shamus, Macavity and Silver Dagger awards. He is the author of nineteen widely praised books, including For the Dead, The Hot Countries, Crashed, Little Elvises, The Fame Thief, King Maybe, and Herbie's Game, which won the Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery. After years of working in the television and music industries, he now writes full-time. Hallinan divides his time between Los Angeles and Southeast Asia, the setting for his Poke Rafferty novels.

Link to Timothy Hallinan's Website

Name Pronunciation
Timothy Hallinan: HAL-in-ann. First syllable pronounced like the name "Hal."

Other books by Timothy Hallinan at BookBrowse

5 more...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more mysteries...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket
    The Frozen River
    by Ariel Lawhon
    "I cannot say why it is so important that I make this daily record. Perhaps because I have been ...
  • Book Jacket
    Prophet Song
    by Paul Lynch
    Paul Lynch's 2023 Booker Prize–winning Prophet Song is a speedboat of a novel that hurtles...
  • Book Jacket: The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    by Lynda Cohen Loigman
    Lynda Cohen Loigman's delightful novel The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern opens in 1987. The titular ...
  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Story Collector
by Evie Woods
From the international bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop!
Book Jacket
The Berry Pickers
by Amanda Peters
A four-year-old Mi'kmaq girl disappears, leaving a mystery unsolved for fifty years.
Who Said...

At times, our own light goes out, and is rekindled by a spark from another person.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.