When film and TV graduate, Antonia Carlyle, sets out to make a documentary about doomed eighties band, “The Tough Romantics”, she uncovers far more than she ever imagined. The band’s story is one of tragedy and betrayal and the circumstances surrounding the death of singer, song-writer, Genevieve James, are not as they had seemed. Had an innocent man been charged with her murder? Could his suicide have been avoided?
Antonia’s growing psychic link with the dead girl and the conviction that justice must be done, leads to an obsession to find the truth, despite the desperation of the other band members, each with their own agendas, to keep Antonia from raking up the past.
Antonia must face her own demons, and those of the band, to uncover the past and confront the present. Will it be enough to lay Genevieve’s ghost to rest at last?
The Price of Fame, RC Daniells
THE PRICE OF FAME is firstly RC Daniells' first crime fiction book (she writes fantasy under her fullname Rowena Cory Daniells), albeit with a hefty paranormal subtext. It wasn't a book that I was particularly clamouring to read, what with being mildly allergic to anything paranormal.
To be fair though, THE PRICE OF FAME, doesn't start out really pushing the paranormal aspects. Sure there are increasingly odd goings on, and not just moving shaving kits, a cat that appears out of nowhere, water droplets that won't go away, strange feelings and odd dreams. There's also a lot of reality going on as well - Antonia is battling against the remaining band members and a lot of vested interests. She's also battling a creepy ex-husband, and a very present day attraction to old friend, and "Director of Photography", Monty. In all, Antonia is a very real person, with a very approachable voice.
There are a couple of clever aspects to the way that the plot unfolds. The current day story is told mostly from Antonia's point of view, whilst the historical story, from the time when the band was rising and Genevieve's death, is told via snippets of a book being written by a witness, and friend of the main suspect. It's a rather clever technique as not only does it break up the viewpoint, it also means that Antonia and Monty are finding out what went on, at the same time as the reader.
The way that St Kilda worked in the 80's, the trials of a band trying to find its way to popularity and fame, the very nature of punk rock, all come across as very realistic and very believable. The paranormal aspects, for a large part of the story are subdued and almost believable, although I will admit that whilst I got the pathos of the ending, I could have lived without the pyrotechnics. To my mind, fans of stock standard, straight crime fiction would be able to stay with this story, because the basic premise is strong and really well done.