Kindle Book Review - Rock's Wages by Vivian Doolittle

In 1976, twenty-three-year-old Ricky Harris was the lead singer and bass player for the Windy City rock group. He is feeling good. He has a bottle of whisky and a cigarette in his hands. He has just played a sellout concert and is in love with Angie. Life could not be better. When he finds Angie in their hotel room having sex with his best friend, Ricky's life falls apart! Ricky is heartbroken. He jumps in his car and drives around aimlessly until he sees a man being thrown off a bridge into a canal by two thugs. Ricky jumps into the water to save the man. Once he gets the stranger to dry land, Ricky realizes he is too late and the man is dead.

Ricky sees that the man looks very similar to him and swaps clothes, driving license, and keys with the man, then drags him into his car before pushing the car and the man back into the canal. Ricky Harris is now dead, and Thor Swenson lives. Who was Thor Swenson? What have Ricky and Thor got in common? Moreover, what happens forty years later when retired Detective Mick Thorne reopens the case of the rocker who is found at the bottom of a canal in his car? To find the answers to these questions, read Rock's Wages by Vivian Doolittle.

I enjoyed reading Rock's Wages. It was fascinating knowing what had happened to Ricky and Thor but reading how Thorne gradually gets to the answer. This well-written story has been thoroughly researched and planned. Vivian Doolittle pays attention to every detail, whether writing about the 1970s or 2010s. I liked how Doolittle used Ricky changing into Thor to get the young rock star off alcohol and drugs and create a new, improved version of him. The twist in the tale whereby Ricky is singing the songs he wrote forty years before, but as his new persona Thor, is brilliant. 

I disliked nothing about Rock's Wages. Vivian Doolittle takes the reader through a roller coaster of emotions with ease. She sensitively tells of a person living with cancer. Raunchily describes rock bands and gigs. It tells of an ex-policeman's struggles to find the truth behind a cold case. There is sex rough and drug-fueled, and sex gently built up to with romantic dates. I laughed, sighed, held my breath, and cried my way through this brilliant book.

I recommend Rock's Wages to anyone who enjoys a murder mystery with a bit of romance and a lot of heart. There is profanity and sexual references, so it would only be appropriate reading for adults.

I read the Kindle version of Rock's Wages by Vivian Doolittle, which I give 4 out of 5. I enjoyed everything about this book, but there were many grammar errors. Once this book has been professionally edited and proofread, it will get a worthy 5 out of 5 from me!