"Dead girl walking" by Chris Brookmyre

3rd person: Jack Parlabane is interviewed by detectives Mitchell and Pine about his time as an investigative journalist. He’d come by a laptop with info showing that the government had rigged evidence to make it look like terrorists had committed the government’s crimes. He's spent time in prison (perhaps wrongly) and is going through a divorce with Sarah.

1st person: Monica (earlier in time than the other time-line) narrates her first tour with the group.

The time-lines alternate.

Mari, the agent of Savage Earth Heart (an indie group that had gone more commercial and just signed a big contract), asks him to look for their lead singer Haike (mother died young - overdose - and father was a significant artist). He interviews most of the rest of the group. The fiddle player Monica isn't there. She's new – a classically trained girl from the Hebrides. She’s almost a virgin with a boyfriend Keith. Scott, Rory and Damian (37) don't say much new. Haike was a control freak, disliking the group using drugs and sleeping with under-age groupies. She was bi or gay. She'd had a long argument with the merch girls on the tour bus.

Monica had replaced Max, Haike's ex. Max is suing her for song co-credits. Haike wants to bring out the real Monica - she thinks Monica's shy persona is just an image. Haike makes a pass which Monica rejects. Haike knows a female fan is stalking her and invites her to the after-concert events. In Haike's room, Haike found that she and Hanna had so much in common and understood her lyrics. Haike made a pass and Hanna hared out. Haike discovers that that Merch girls on the tour bus are hookers. She suspects that they're being held against their will. Jan, the tour manager, is involved. She tries to alert the police about it. Monica and Haike receive threats. Photos of them kissing go online. Keith is enraged - he's just got promotion and is thinking of their future together. Monica sleeps with the male drummer, which upsets Haike.

Parlabane discovers that the roadies were involved with supplying drugs. He goes to Berlin with Mari to find clues. He knows he's being followed. Someone tries to push him under a U-bahn. On the CCTV of the hotel where Haike was last seen, Keith appears, angry. Maybe the people chasing Parlabane (Boris, etc) are after Haike. He realises that there are secrets on Boris's iPad that he keeps with him. Parlabane infiltrates his workplace and gets into his iPad. On it he finds a copy of Monica's private blog (the 1st person timeline text)

A friend of Hanna's tells Monica and Haike that Hanna was Haike's half-sister - Haike's Berlin-druggie mother hadn't died. Hanna was a mid-european whore, like the merch girls. So was Hanna's friend. She needed $12k to buy herself out. When Haike offers the money to the thugs, they raise the price (they want to be paid in watches). At the exchange, Hanna is killed. Haike shoots her murderer dead. The murderer had a cop's ID card! They escape.

Hanna's found dead. Parlabane turns down the chance of a night with Mari - he's known/fancied her since school days but hopes to return to his wife. They learn that Haike got a train ticket to Denmark on the day she disappeared, and bought 2 expensive watches. He guesses that she's on Isla with Flora, a woman who she treated like a mother (he'd interviewed the woman before. She owned a boat). Parlabane and Mari catch up with Monica on the ferry. They all meet Haike.

Boris wants a million euros to hush Haike's killing of the man. The meeting place is a boat. They set out on Flora's boat. They have police below-deck. Boris is arrested.

It was all a scam - the "Spanish Prisoner" trick. The man wasn't dead. The Hanna story was fake. The roadie who grew up with Haike provided info for the perpetrators.

A clever plot, so I'll forgive the odd creaky detail. The dialogue is interesting. Sometimes we learn of a fact first in one timeline, sometimes in the other. There's a sub-theme of people and their generated images - Monica, Parlabane, as well as "Hanna". The over-arching plot (the book's part of the series) doesn't interfere too much.

Other reviews

• bookreporter (If there is a downside to this latest offering by Christopher Brookmyre, it’s that it takes a while to ultimately get to it. ... The problem with the narrative is that Brookmyre tends to go off on rants that have little or nothing to do with the actual story. )
• John Cleal (The relationship between the naive Monica and the driven Heike Gunn, told in the first person, is surprisingly convincing and well written. Brookmyre, as well as having a lively imagination, writes the female roles well, although his characters all tend to speak with a masculine voice. ... This is hardly the greatest book I’ll read this year, largely because of my problems with reconciling the character of Jack with either a man of principle or any reporter I’ve known. But it really is a very good story)
• Kirkus reviews (A complex back story and some awkward attempts to convey the magic of the lost singer’s music make for a slow start. But Brookmyre [] builds momentum and combines the two distinct narrative voices in a clever duet.)