Subscribe to Read | $0.00
Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Quick and Easy Sign Up!
It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.
Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Quick and Easy Sign Up!
It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.
Read Anywhere and on Any Device!
Rate this book!
Write a review?
This is a good, old-fashioned mystery that moves quickly and keeps your interest until the end. An enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.
I bought this book at a Half Priced Bookstore on sale for $3.00 only for it's title. A little disappointed that it was a mystery not directly related to the death of Buddy Holly! It was a interesting mystery and his discriptions were so enjoyable and reminded me of the old detective shows. A good touch of humor made it enjoyable to read also. It is the first in a series of mysteries he wrote!
I enjoyed this short mystery. Characters are colorful, and while some of their behavior may be predictable, the story was not.
First time reading Ed Gorman. I wanted to like this because of the title--I do love music! He spent time setting up the character because he wrote a lot in the series of Sam McCain. And that's ok, but the book is written about a time in America that was pretty depressing--about how the haves seem to rule over the have nots in this small Iowa town. Gritty, poverty & lots of racial discrimination. Going to try a 2nd one to see if it is a little less tense.
I was bored.
A mystery set in the 1950's by someone who goes into a rage whenever Ozzie and Harriet is mentioned. I couldn't get into it.
This is a fun visit to the 1950's, complete with references to old TV shows and hit records. The mystery part is just so-so but the "good old days", as well as the not-so-good of illegal abortions and racism, make it a cut above many mysteries.
It's not great literature, and Gorman tries just a bit to hard to make it 1958; but it's great fun and decently written. I'm ready for more McCain.
That fourth star might just be because this light-hearted mystery was just what this reader needed, after three successive reads that made me very sad (one just because it seemed pointless). This was a discovery via download; I've now found there are several more in the series (the author died a few years ago). I liked Sam. I liked the folks in his little Iowa town. I like Iowa. This was a funny read in places but never lost sight of being a mystery. There was murder, racial tension, illicit lov...
Enjoyable. Want to read another. Almost spent too much time setting the 1950's.
Sam gets involved with the murder/suicide of Judge's nephew. He asks around about the wife's affairs and realizes the murder weapon was not one the husband had. He also deals with his high school sister's pregnancy and a body found in a boat on a frozen pond being a result of a botched abortion. Pamela is still in love with Stu, while May gets engaged to the druggist. Behind the scenes the plane of Buddy Holly has gone own after the concert he and Pam have attended. He also deals with the nephew...
This is the first in a mystery series, featuring lawyer Sam McCain, who lives in the small town of Black River Falls, Iowa. It is 1959 and the book begins with Sam and the girl he yearns after, Pamela, watching Buddy Holly on the show which would prove to be his last. If you are a fan of Buddy Holly, then let me just warn you that McCain’s love of rock and roll is something that is mentioned in passing only and to set the scene; Holly himself does not feature in the novel. Each book in the serie...
The Day the Music Died is the first book in Ed Gorman's series featuring perpetually broke lawyer/P.I. Sam McCain. It was published in 1998 but is now being re-released on Dec. 31th, 2013 by both Mysterious Press and Open Roads Media.. Not coincidentally, this makes it my last review for 2013.I must confess that I decided to read this for the title. I love fiction that has a basis in musical pop culture. For those who don't know, the title is a line from Don Mclean's song American Pie which refe...
(3). Welcome to small town America, 1958, where death and racism and crazy stuff still goes on with great regularity. This is a great little read. Sam McCain is a totally engaging protagonist who takes us through a well crafted story of murder, a little music and more with some very nice twists and turns. I need to see what the follow ups in this series are. Big fun.
A modest start to a P.I series. Ed Gorman has written better in other novels.
Sam McCain is an attorney and a private investigator in Black River Falls, Iowa. It’s the late 1950s and he likes rock and roll, Pall Malls and his rag-top 1951 red Ford convertible. Sam works for Judge Esme Ann Whitney, so when she calls him early in the morning and tells him to go to her nephew’s mansion he goes right out there; Kenny Whitney seems near hysterical, the Judge tells Sam. When he arrives he finds Kenny’s wife, Susan, dead in a pool of blood and Kenny holed up in his bedroom with
Totally loved it. I really liked Sam and I really enjoyed the references to 1950s pop culture. The mystery was also enthralling. Can't wait to get onto the next book in the series
I'd had this book on my shelf for a while, and was reminded to read it by Ed Gorman's recent passing. I enjoyed it and will be searching out the rest of the series. Set at the time of the Iowa plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper, Gorman's novel shows an Iowa that is both different and the same as the state that went for Trump in the recent election. Protagonist Sam McCain is a young man who grew up in The Knolls, an area of his small town that belies its bucolic...
A murder mystery in the 1950’s. I enjoyed all the cultural references. Sam was fun to get to know. Other then that, an ok read. Read for fulfilling Popsugar reading challenge.
