Guitar strings and murder, a literary analysis of: Emerald City by Chris Nickson.

Hello again, agents. Thank you for attending today's briefing. Today we are going to discuss an interesting book that has been out for a little while, but it seems to have flown under the radar and attracted little attention. "Emerald city" by Chris Nickson is a wonderful and richly detailed, noir mystery revolves around the 1988 underground music scene in Seattle. Mr. Nixon creates a world in which the reader is completely swallowed up by the atmosphere to the point where as the reader. You almost hear the music and smell the coffee and feel of the drizzle of the rain on your head, and on top of the rich descriptions of the city and its "sound" the mysterious death of the up-and-coming musician and his band. Provide enough twists and turns to keep the reader engaged from the first page to the last. I also got some serious J.A. Jance vibes, I got the distinct feeling that this is the sort of story that you would get if JP Beaumont and Rolling Stone had a love child. There was the same sort of gritty realism, but instead of a police perspective. The reader is presented with the opportunity to view the city of Seattle through the eyes of the avant-garde musicians and music junkies that provide the soundtrack to the Emerald City. This is definitely a must-read for any true Seattleite or lover of Seattle-based fiction...

Mention Seattle, to most people (particularly outsiders) and what comes to mind is Microsoft, Frasier and rain and coffee, or possibly microbreweries. However, Seattle is also the setting for Emerald City, a book by Chris Nickson.
It’s 1988 and Laura Benton is a music journalist at The Rocket, a publication at which the author also worked in the 1980s. It’s a male-dominated world where Laura feels she has to constantly prove herself in order to be taken seriously; When Craig Adler, songwriter and lead with local band "Snakeblood," dies of a heroine over dose on the eve of the big time, there’s no reason for anyone to be suspicious. But when Laura discovers that Craig had been clean for a year she suspects there may be more to the story than meets the eye. Then the threatening phone calls start, warning Laura to leave the story alone. But who is making the calls, and who has most to gain from Craig’s death?
Nickson successfully conveys the warmth he feels for the city and he obviously knows the Seattle music scene. But as with his historical fiction, the author weaves enough of his knowledge in to add authenticity without ramming it down the reader’s throat.
The reader will learn more about Seattle: usually their previous experience of Washington State music starts and ends with Nirvana. I liked Laura immensely, but cared less about her boyfriend who came across as whiny and needy, and from the stories the other characters related about the victim, he would have been someone, that definitely have changed the Seattle "sound" forever.
Seattle: Microsoft, Frasier and rain. After reading The Emerald City, you may now want to add music and the setting for some fine crime fiction to the list.


As always, agents, "reading is just recreation for intelligence"

Book Details:

·  Print Length: 190 pages

·  Publisher: Creative Content Limited (March 29, 2013)

·  Publication Date: March 29, 2013

·  Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

·  Language: English

·  ASIN: B00C1PQ0S8