Ballad Of A Dead Nobody

by Liza Cody

Elly Astoria had a miraculous musical talent. As a little girl she taught herself to play guitar and keyboard so that she could feed herself and her junkie mother. One rainy night she was spotted singing and playing by the founder of an indy women's band. Later, cleaned up and better fed, she caught the eye of her future manager - and his creepy sister. It should have been a rags-to-riches story. Instead Elly's career was cut short by her perverted and grisly murder.

Years after her death it looks as if Elly's life has been overlooked. If anyone deserves rediscovery and a biography, it's Elly. Clearly there is a story to be told and a mystery to be solved. But how?

320 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2011

About the author

Liza Cody (real name Liza Nassim) is an English crime fiction writer.

Reviews

[Luci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liza Cody is a wonderful writer and I'm sad that this hasn't been published by a proper publisher. It's well written and involving but the end is a bit of a disappointment, but it's still worth reading and currently a good value download (I read it on a Kindle).

[Kerrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liza Cody is an author who went off the radar for the first decade of this century. I do remember reading BUCKET NUT and MONKEY WRENCH when they were published twent years ago. I think I also read some of her Anna Lee series.

This book though was quite different to what I expected. The structure is a series of recorded interviews, excerpts from letters, emails and telephone messages which Amy makes in her quest to write a book that will make her mark in the world. Once she settles on the idea of a biography about Elly Astoria, Amy discovers that there is bit more to being a biographer than just collecting material. What do you do about the gaps where you haven't a clue where the truth lies? For example no one was ever charged with Elly's murder. Is a biographer a detective too?

Amy's quest takes her to tracking down members of MotherHood, the band Elly was "adopted" by, and she makes some odd discoveries. The band broke up straight after Elly's death and went their separate ways, although they and Elly's agents continued to get income from recordings and performance rights.

There was a point when I nearly gave up on reading the book. It began to seem rather long winded and disjointed and Amy seemed no closer to the truth. I'm glad I didn't give up though.

[Kirsty Darbyshire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with everything Luci has said. I loved Liza Cody's books when I read them - mostly in the 90s before I started keeping a booklog - and especially Rift which was one of those stories that stayed with me for years afterwards. It's sad that she doesn't have a proper publisher. I love the way Cody invents a songwriter character and meshes her into the real music world of the 80s, the story oozes authenticity. This would have been a great book with a bit of editing, as it is it's a decent read but left me confused.