4-STAR REVIEW: SUMMER OF LOVE by Paul Martin

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About The Book

A Music & Murder Mystery: Book 3
Publication Date: November 29, 2022

It’s 1967 in California’s magical City by the Bay—
a bold new era of sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll…and murder.
Graduating from UC Berkeley just as the Summer of Love begins, twin brothers Jack and Bobby Doyle forge two different career paths. Jack heads off to Vietnam to serve his country, while Bobby remains in the Bay Area, immersing himself in the world of music journalism. As the summer progresses, both brothers witness death firsthand for the first time, Jack on the battlefield and Bobby on the drug-infested streets of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district.

Their experiences are equally shattering, with Jack losing newfound comrades-in-arms and Bobby enduring the murders of two women he’d grown close to. Bobby’s traumas become as threatening as Jack’s daily perils when he falls under suspicion in the murder investigations. Conferring with Jack by letter, Bobby tries to discover who actually committed the crimes. As the Summer of Love draws to a close, stunning events overtake the entire Doyle family.

Excerpt

The Review

A cross between a tourist’s guide to San Francisco and a playbill for the city’s rock ‘n roll concerts during the summer of ‘67, Summer of Love by Paul Martin is an interesting combination replete with a murder mystery, or two, thrown in. A thoroughly detailed lexicon of area sites, attractions and their history as told through the eyes of the main character, Bobby Doyle.

Bobby Doyle and his twin brother, Jack, graduate UC Berkley in 1967 with the world as their oyster. While identical, Bobby and Jack are also diametric opposites. Bobby decides to pursue his studies and his dream of being a writer, by penning columns for the San Francisco Chronicle about the rock ‘n roll scene in that summer before starting his graduate studies.

Jack, on the other hand, follows his dream of serving his country and heads to Vietnam in uniform. It’s summer, the hippies are in town, drug use is rampant and the popularity of rock ‘n roll is spreading like wildfire. Bobby’s summer, however, turns out not to be so perfect as some of those closest to him are murdered by drug overdose. Could clean cut, all around nice guy, Bobby, be the common denominator or is the drug culture run wild? While Bobby is dealing with his losses at home, Jack is dealing with a different kind of loss experiencing the Vietnam war firsthand. The day in/day out exposure to senseless death and the wanton degradation as a human being stretches Jack to his limit. Both brothers experience a different kind of summer of than either of them could have anticipated.

Just like Bobby and Jack’s summer, Summer of Love by Paul Martin was an unexpected read. Bobby’s San Francisco story was written as a newspaper reporter would write a column – the facts and nothing but the facts. While the characters could have been interesting, the author instead told us what they were feeling rather than allowing the reader to experience the feelings themselves.

The bulk of the story lies in San Francisco with brief, disjointed glimpses at Jack’s story in Vietnam. The details of San Francisco locations and the listing of legendary rock performers at the start of their careers was interesting. However, a strong fiction editor could have polished the story into a powerful tale of a fabled summer where history, music and a murder mystery story come together in a psychedelic rush that would have been truly enjoyable reading.

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About The Author Paul Martin is a former book and magazine editor with the National Geographic Society. His writing assignments have taken him around the world. The author of twelve books of fiction and nonfiction, he has also edited or contributed to a dozen other books on history, science, and travel. An amateur luthier and onetime vineyard owner and winemaker, Martin lives near Washington, D.C.