Tie Die

Max Tomlinson

Jun 2020 · Oceanview Publishing

About this ebook

USA Today best-selling author

When the music stopped, it was murder

Back in London's swinging '60s, Steve Cook was teen idol number one. But that changed when a sixteen-year-old fan was found dead in his hotel room bed. Steve's career came to a crashing halt after he was dumped by his record company and arrested. Now, in 1978 San Francisco, Steve works construction, still dreaming of a comeback.

Until his eleven-year-old daughter is kidnapped.

Steve turns to one person for help: Colleen Hayes. She was quite a fan herself, back in the day. And she knows what it's like to be on the wrong side of the law and live in judgement for the rest of your life.

It doesn't take Colleen long to realize something fishy is going on with the kidnapping of Melanie Cook. What transpires is a harrowing journey through a music industry rife with corruption and crime. Colleen's search takes her through San Francisco's underbelly and all the way to '70s London, where she discovers a thread leading back to the death of a forgotten fan in Steve's hotel room.

Perfect for fans of Harlan Coben's noir suspense

While all of the novels in the Colleen Hayes Mystery Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is:
Vanishing in the Haight
Tie Die
Bad Scene
Line of Darkness
Night Candy (coming 2023)

Ratings and reviews

We are back in time, to the 1960s-1970s - a perfect picture of that world as it were. The songs, the cars, the burnt-orange kitchens, 501 Levis, thirty cents a gallon gas - nostalgia for my generation, and a worthy lesson for the youngsters. I received a free electronic ARC of this historical novel - boy, that hurts my self-image! - from Netgalley, Max Tomlinson, and Oceanview Publishing. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. Max Tomlinson writes a tight, compelling story with a fast pace and sympathetic characters. This is the second in a series but completely stand-alone. Stevie Cook is the 18-year-old songwriter and lead singer in a British boy band, the Lost Chords, in 1966. They have paid their dues and finally - finally! have a hit on their hands and all the bonus attention that goes with that. An Album deal and booze and screaming girls and drugs and maybe even free sex. This is their first taste of the big-time, a show at the Hammersmith Odeon Theatre in London, and a screaming sell-out crowd that makes all the lean meals and disappointed mamas seem minor. But that adage,' Easy Come, Easy Go' falls too true for the boys. This is also their last show. Anywhere. Stevie held them together, and now he is running from the law In several countries. In 1978, in San Francisco, we encounter Steve again, singing lead in a band with no name at The Pitt, a little neighborhood bar in Mission. He still has it, whatever 'it' is, but chooses to stay out of the limelight, not content by any means but able to handle his life in pieces. Long after a very contentious divorce, he is the non-custodial father of Melanie, a spoiled, 11-year-old horse-crazy daughter, and Steve has all he can do just to get through the days. Ex-wife Lynda is a real piece of work and makes his relationship with Melanie difficult. And then Melanie is kidnapped. Colleen, with the help of retired Homicide Officer Moran, is a fairly new private investigator, recently released after a 9-year plus stretch in prison for killing her husband. On probation, she is having difficulty obtaining a proper PI license, and cannot carry a gun. Steve can almost afford to hire her to help him find his daughter. Colleen would help for nothing - her own teenaged daughter Pam is a voluntary prisoner with a cult in Northern California and all Colleen can do is wait for her to see the light. Collie actually recognizes Steve but missed the turmoil that killed his career in England. One of the songs on side B of the Lost Chord's only album was a favorite of hers when she was a young wife and mother. And she has time on her hands - she and her clapped-out Torino are available to help him find and pay the $20,000 ransom to free Melanie. His ex-wife's father would loan him the money - Mellie IS his granddaughter - but only if Steve signs over the Lost Chords catalog of copy-written songs. Not as collateral, but as a sale. And the 20 k would be repaid, with interest. The copy-writes have been in contention for about ten years so he has yet to make a cent off of them, but they are all Steve has to show for his life. He finds the money with a gangster but needs someone to deliver it while he retrieves his daughter. Once they figure out where she is, of course. Colleen has a difficult time getting him to understand that now before the money changes hands is the only time he will have any leverage and he must demand proof of life and work out transfer details before he hands over his grey athletic bag of cash. And something about the whole situation strikes Collie as wonky. She has trouble believing how naive Steve is but does her best to steer him in a direction that will keep his daughter safe while she tries to track down the protagonists and suss out Melanie's location. But it would all be a lot easier if Steve weren't so appealing. And if she could count on her Torino to start every time she needs it to... Even at just 30 cents per gallon -and Ethel is double that - gas is expensive i

About the author

USA Today best-selling author Max Tomlinson was born in San Francisco. With the Bay Area's rich literary history and a public transport system teeming with characters suitable for crime novels, the stage was set for Max to become a mystery writer. In addition, his time abroad has inspired a variety of flavors in his writing. His published work includes a crime series set in South America, an international espionage series, and now the Colleen Hayes Mystery Series, set in 1970s San Francisco. Tie Die is the second novel in the series, following the acclaimed Vanishing in the Haight.