You can sum up Death Is On The Down Beat in just six words! ‘Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll.’

Richard Winston has created a high octane story containing these three critical ingredients. Centered around L.A.'s somewhat sleazy world of music, Death has more twists and turns in the plot than the Pacific Coast Highway, which incidentally provides part of the backdrop to the story. Our Hero, although it is a bit of a reach to call him a hero, is the unlikely, and mostly unlikable character Myhres. Not Joe Myhres, or Mr. Myhres, just Myhres. He comes with a very dubious pedigree gained from his mostly unsavory past, and his less-than-angelic present.

The story opens with some insights into Myres’ past wrongdoings, which are many and significant. In the late '60s he becomes involved with a successful band ‘Pink Noise’. Here he holds the official title of ‘Roadie’ and the unofficial title of ‘security’. This is a new definition of the word ‘security’, and one that Webster’s Dictionary has not yet printed. Security seems to mainly involve gunplay and inflicting large amounts of bodily harm to any miscreant that gets in his way.

We fast forward to the present day: Myhres has somewhat cleaned up his act, and is now just a lecherous middle-aged DJ working for Public Radio.

Little by little the events from his very long and very distant past start to effect his already less than satisfactory life. Acquaintances from his dark, former life start to reappear, some dead, some very much alive. The one common denominator seems to be ‘Pink Noise’.

Murder, mayhem, and blackmail are involved; can Myhres get to the bottom of it before he also becomes a victim?

Death Is On The Dead Beat makes for a great romp, and I can recommend it to anyone looking for an exciting read. One of the aspects that I particularly liked was the main character's love/hate relationship with his huge ageing Lincoln Continental, which is referred to with such endearing terms as ‘The Bismarck’, the parking of which becomes ‘Berthing’.