A Jason Davey Mystery: Book 5
Publication Date: September 26, 2024
Fresh from a 34-day, 18-city tour of England, professional musician and amateur sleuth Jason Davey accepts an invitation from a fan, Marcus Merritt, to meet at Level 72 of The Shard to sign one of his band’s programs. Marcus hands him the booklet, then leaps to his death from the open viewing platform. Thus begins a week-long quest, during which Jason is tasked with retrieving a stolen collection of scores by England’s most famous composer, Sir Edward Elgar.
Marcus shared Elgar’s love of eccentric puzzles and games, and the challenging clues he’s assembled for Jason seem to mirror the 14 themes in Elgar’s renowned Enigma Variations. Jason’s journey takes him to Derbyshire and then back to London, and a four-hour walking tour of Soho’s lost music venues where, in Denmark Street, he faces a life-threatening battle with two adversaries: a treacherous Russian gangster who is also hunting for the stolen collection, and Marcus’s sister—who holds the key to a decades-old mystery involving a notorious London crime lord’s missing daughter.
Bad Boy is the fifth book in Winona Kent’s mystery series featuring jazz musician-turned-amateur sleuth Jason Davey.
Bad Boy is the fifth book in Winona Kent’s Jason Davey Mysteries series. Before I begin this review, this book should have a trigger warning as it includes self-harm and suicide for one character.
This book had a lot of trivia and information about music, different bands, rock and roll, and classical. I thought all the information about music was interesting and helped keep the story moving.
As mentioned before, there is a suicide scene, and I’m still not sure why that scene needed to be added to the story. It was deeply unsettling and, in my opinion, didn’t add anything to the story. Ironically, he was the catalyst for Jason’s involvement in finding a collection of scores, which is the plot of the whole story.
I felt sorry for Jason, as he was basically thrown into this situation unwillingly, and then the situation forced him to find the missing items or face consequences that could result in harm.
I liked Jason and thought he was a cool character. I also liked the secondary characters, Judy and her husband; they were also vehicles used to help keep the plot moving.
Bad Boy is a story about the music industry with a compelling mystery thrown in for good measure.
Winona Kent was born in London, England and grew up in Saskatchewan. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and a screenwriting diploma from VFS. Winona has been a temporary secretary, a travel agent, a screenwriter, the Managing Editor of a literary magazine and a university Graduate Programs Assistant. She’s the author of an anthology of short stories and eleven novels, including her five current Jason Davey soft-boiled musical mysteries. Winona lives in New Westminster, BC with her husband, and a concerning number of disobedient houseplants, many of which were rescued from her apartment building’s compost bin after being abandoned by previous owners.
September 26 – fundinmental – SPOTLIGHT
September 26 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT
September 27 – Deal Sharing Aunt – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
September 27 – Baroness Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT
September 28 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
September 28 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
September 29 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – CHARACTER GUEST POST
September 30 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
October 1 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
October 2 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR GUEST POST
October 3 – Cozy Up With Kathy – AUTHOR GUEST POST
October 3 – Novels Alive – REVIEW
October 4 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
October 4 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
October 5 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
October 5 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
