Bad Monday - Hardcover

‘A brilliant debut... Self-deprecating, put upon, wryly comic Chris comes through as likeable and credible, a rare combination’
Independent

‘With its spirited heroine, its narrative drive and its splendid intricacy, this novel should put Annette Roome at the forefront of detective writing’ Times Literary Supplement

Chris Martin, the wryly self-deprecating and attractive heroine of Annette Roome’s award-winning first novel is back. Her home life might be looking up now her two-timing husband has moved out and her lover in, but her working life as a reporter on the local rag is in a rut, condemning her to covering village fetes and lost cats. Her newest assignment – interviewing local boy and legendary rock star Rick Monday – at least has an aura of glamour surrounding it, even though the ostensible reason for the article is Monday’s championing of a local trust for underprivileged youths.

Though the interview itself turns out to be a major disappointment, the follow-up is dynamite: Monday is found with an ornamental dagger in his chest and Chris was one of the last people to see him alive. Determined not to let the biggest story of her career get away, Chris defies her editor and the police by conducting her own investigation into the murder. Undeterred by close encounters with a violent songwriter and a deranged groupie – not to mention the large boot of a corrupt detective – she pursues the trail as it leads her through the often seedy world of rock music and into a web of family lies and secrets. But the price of this big story could be Chris’s life.