Review: Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars 1955-1994

Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars 1955-1994 by David Hepworth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

More a collection of articles than a cohesive narrative, Uncommon People is well-written and entertaining but lacks the singular focus of his previous book 1971 - Never A Dull Moment.

In truth, the book could have cut off at the end of the '70s, there being many, many more 'Rock Star' stories from rock & roll's first quarter century than thereafter and Hepworth's approach of one essay per year means that interest tails off towards the end. That said, his piece on Prince, which really hangs on the allegations against Michael Jackson, makes interesting reading in light of the recent Jackson documentary, and his piece on Kurt Cobain is one of the best examinations of the inability to deal with fame that I have ever read.

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Review: The Scholar

The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dervla McTiernan’s ‘The Scholar’ builds on the promise of her first novel ‘The Ruin’. Garda Cormac O’Reilly, still viewed with suspicion by some of his colleagues in Galway, has something of a supporter in Carrie O’Halloran who recognises that Cormac’s talents are being wasted on cold cases and sees an opportunity to share some of her workload. But, as O’Reilly familiarises himself with the investigation into a man who appears to have tried to murder his wife and children, he takes a frantic call from his girlfriend, Emma, who has found a body in the road outside the university in which she works, the body of a young woman carrying the ID of the granddaughter of one of Galway’s richest businessmen.
The plot is suitably serpentine, the pace intense, but it is the cast of characters that make this such a joy to read. The key players are well-drawn, not just Cormac O’Reilly, but also Emma Sweeney, Carrie O’Halloran, Peter Fisher - these are ‘real’ people, not clichés; there are no rogue cops with drink problems here. The dialogue is realistic and we see the investigation processes at work, but ‘The Scholar’ is so much more than just a good police procedural. The suspense is extreme at times and the book is never less than satisfying. And, along the way, McTiernan asks questions about the ‘profits at all costs’ nature of Big Pharma.
I am so glad that ‘The Ruin’ was not a one-off and look forward to the next in the series.

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