Wild Years: The Music and Myth of Tom Waits

A Dr. Zol Szabo Medical Mystery #1

by Jay S. Jacobs

Legend. Bum. Genius. Con Man. Devoted husband and father. Myth. Storyteller. Inspiration. Drunk. Visionary. Tom Waits is all of these things.Waits is the lifeline between the great Beat poets and today’s rock & roll heroes. He’s old enough to be your dad and cool enough to be your hero. One of the few truly original musicians recording today, he’s also the rare singer who can actually act, and he has put together a respectable body of work in movies.Wild The Music and Myth of Tom Waits retraces the long road that Waits has traveled and explores the music that made him a legend. Jay S. Jacobs looks at the towering myth that Waits has created for himself.Jay S. Jacobs follows the fate of one of America’s pre-eminent artists, a very private man whose career embodies a quirky array of fulfillment and loss, beauty and strangeness.This revised and updated edition includes a new chapter, with insight on Waits’ career in the 21st century thus far, as well as the most complete discography available in print. Tom’s Wild Years ― a poignant, revealing celebration of the man and all his myths.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Mystery, Canada, Book Club, Crime

309 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2006

Reviews

[Mariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I'll tell you all my secrets, but I lie about my past." from "Tango Till You're Sore"


I don't know what the Tom Waits biography of my dreams would be. If I could sing back to the little birds who tell people things they need to know... How do you change the wires that hook your ears up to your eyes and loop up to the noodly parts that trick you into thinking (no, into believing) that the filth isn't there to dirty up the clean? Alphabet soup spells rhymes out of this world of Dr. Seuss and Sesame Street. There's a nose dive bar there. Everyone knows your name. I'm pretty good at not noticing the messes I've made around myself. I'm not at all sure that this is something to brag about. It somehow seems like not such a bad thing that Waits could give into some things and then say "That's enough of that" when he needed to do it. If anyone could do it it would be him. It seems to me the secret of everything must be carried on his moonglow. Go ahead and lie down in the dark for a while. It's something about noticing the dust that covers everything for everyone else. I wish I had on the ends of my fingertips the Tom Waits quote about how he can't live in his imagination without sanity and he can't live in the real world without the imagination. That's what the Tom Waits biography of my dreams would be. It would be like a manual to live like a person who can make life the necessary imagination part. I would want to do that. I want to be like Tom Waits. He could turn any life into something that's worth something other than trying not to see dirt. Maybe even mine. How do you live like you're in a Tom Waits song? Like what the next words are going to be howled or croaked out. A mumble in the grumble of what connects the gut. In the dive bar on Sesame Street they are singing 99 bottles of something something connected to the hip bone funny song. That's the Tom Waits book of my dreams.

In 1976, Waits told Newsweek, "There's a common loneliness that just sprawls from coast to coast. It's like a common disjointed identity crisis. It's the dark, warm, narcotic American night." This, more than anything else, is what intoxicates Tom Waits. Not alcohol, not drugs, not fame, not fortune... but maybe love. He's inspired and challenged by the endless possibilities, the desperation, the hurried compromises made in order to survive and maybe even grab a little happiness.

Is there guilt involved in writing a biography about an intensely private man? I got the feeling that author of "Wild Years: The Music and Myth of Tom Waits" had his hands tied behind his back. Maybe too much rock star journalist hemming and rock star biographer hawing in the beginning that HIS book wasn't going to pry. Blah blah wouldn't it be good if it was all true. What would be good is if you could live like the imagination parts were true. There would be meaning to life it THAT were true. Why assume that the reader is assuming the worst of your intentions (it's probably in fear that the man himself would be ticked off)? If you care about where Tom Waits was born or shit like that (he couldn't keep it from coming out where he went to high school. That one I've already forgotten. Tom Petty went to the same high school as me. His yearbook photo was torn out long before I attended). I don't care about that kind of stuff. If you ever meet me I will never think to ask you what you do for a living or other such facebook stuff. I'm not all that interested in a collection of the myths either. It's kind of funny the stories changing about how he was born with a beard in a taxi cab. Jacobs must've listened to years worth of footage of interviews and concert performances to get some of those storytelling moments. You know what I like about it? That the stories aren't told to pull some man from Oz behind the curtain switcheroo with the truth. Waits isn't accusing folks like me of wanting to pry into his life. We get the benefit of that imagination tight rope walking thing. I doubt he knows what he is going to say before he says it. It reminded me of the colorful shit my grandfather used to tell us. It wasn't insulting because he didn't pretend we were stupid or anything for wanting that stuff to be true. What more do you need to know about someone than that they can write songs like those? Tom Waits is no blind man. So the myths are to keep him from being settled into one thing, he once said (personally, in my real life I make up shit when this one guy insists on repeatedly asking facebook style questions I hate answering to begin with. I'm not single! He/she lives in Niagra Falls and you wouldn't know them). If you don't want to get caught in yourself, in your own songs... Well, you just don't give a fuck, right? Just don't assume that you know what is in other people's heads or that they think they know what is in yours. I kind of want to know how you don't give a fuck. If you listen to the rock star journalists and the rock star biographers Waits is trying to be different people from Bukowski to Captain Beefheart. That's like saying that life experiences are a math equation and you'll get the answer if you put one together with four and five. You can't. If I think about it he's being other people or parts of himself. Like a way to get to know someone else by being in their shoes. That's my take on it, anyway. I suck at math. It's impossible to trap someone. People change. Just because you tell people stuff doesn't mean they know everything about you. (My favorite kind of person is someone who wouldn't have some asshole take on it like you were trying to hurt them or you imposed on them with some part of yourself. Like not pretending that people aren't alone in the world.) I liked a lot what Jacobs wrote about Waits giving dignity to the downtrodden bar types he wrote about, even though he could never truly be one of them himself. No pedestal, no stool. Sit next to someone.

I was kind of bored about the wild years. The infamous squalid hotel for rock stars the Tropicana. I wouldn't mind if I never heard about the Tropicana again (it was torn down oh darn). Old girlfriend Rickie Lee Jones and her little runaway death wish on high heels like her own tight rope of save me from myself and I don't need no one's help. Jay S. Jacobs has a kind of quaint way of describing the background of this stuff. Did you know that there was a scene around William S. Burroughs and Kerouac? It might be unfair of me to find it unnecessary to lay out the history of the Steppenwolf theatre company. It might be that I'm a total loser for already knowing all about that. I couldn't help it. I was bored. It's funny how much of that stuff I already knew and I didn't try to know all that much about Waits until pretty recently (oh yeah, I like memorizing music trivia to stop me from thinking negative shit about myself. I know a lot about The Beatles, for example). I am fairly certain that I already read Joe Mantegna's quote about how humble and cool Tom Waits is from when they filmed Queen's Logic (I like that Jacobs pointed out that this makes Waits one degree in the Kevin Bacon game. I've used Waits many times in the Kevin Bacon game). I've seen a lot of the films Waits was in. I kinda wonder now about how he was type cast as a drunk so often. Is that how the filmmakers saw him when they went to the drawing board for casting? When you think of a drunk the slogan goes. That would be sad if that's what people thought of when they thought about Waits. The persona of a drunk (of anyone). I mean, people (well, most people) are asleep a large portion of their life, in one way or another. If they choose to do that, well, isn't the intent different? Anyone can party hard. What about everything else? That's why the scene stuff bores me. I don't care that other rock stars followed him around, or where Janis Joplin overdosed. There was other stuff going on. The head and soul spaces that made music. What were they TRYING to do? Tom Waits was trying to reach out to people he saw as trying to make a life. Anyway, I think I was aware of Waits as an actor before I ever heard any of his music. Waits as an actor fits. Wanting to wear the skin of another, right? The way he described doing it is that he just did it, like some natural thing. How do you do that? Just get close to someone else, be them, like it doesn't even matter than you can do it?

My favorite parts of the book were about the making of the record. I loved it when recording a song was some magical thing that just happened and no one wanted to go home when it was over. I love that Waits never gave a shit that none of his albums made a lot of money. What I could have done without is the emphasis on that they never made much money. It must be some sort of rock journalist thing to talk about money or current influence as the relevance for even writing about your subject. Count von Count from Sesame Street couldn't add up how little I care about Norah Jones being a fan of Waits. I have some idea that music finds you when you most need it. That's why Waits has a fanbase despite not making it on charts. Oh well.

Speaking of rock journalists, the interview with Mikal Gilmore from Rolling Stone was quoted a lot. That was pretty cool for me because I read Gilmore's memoir Shot in the Heart last year (about his family and his brother, executed murderer Gary Gilmore). It didn't really sink in for me before the to-do about his writing for ROLLING STONE. That he got out by running away and not looking back did, that the only way to stay above was to stay apart. Only, he did end up looking back, and staying apart was still being alone. I was happy that he got to interview Tom Waits. I think he would get that feeling of being close by not singing as if you're away from the world. I don't usually think about the interviewer that much. When Morrissey is interviewed the journalist tries too hard to insert themselves into the theme. "Look at me! I'm special! I'M the fan you'll reach out to just a little bit more." So far I've not seen any of that bull shit with Tom Waits.

I guess there wouldn't be a Tom Waits book of my dreams. "Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters" I have high hopes for. It's pretty much a collection of interviews. Something I find comforting is reading Tom Waits interviews. I might read that one next. "Lowside of the road: A Life of Tom Waits" by Barney Hoskyns sounds depressing. Hoskyns wrote it against the wishes of Waits. Waits himself forbade any of his friends from participating in the project. I read in a professional review of the book that Hoskyns included emails from these people in the back of the book. According to the review, there was bitterness from the old drinking buddies that Waits drifted away from (drifted away like a life raft from a sinking ship, some could say). There was resentment from the same people towards Waits' wife Kathleen Brennan as if she were a Yoko Ono if she really did break up The Beatles (she didn't). That kinda left a bad feeling with me and I have no desire to read that particular book about Waits. I don't want to know if anyone would wish anything more than a rich life for Waits. Nothing but the life he would make for himself. A self made man of myth and legend. Maybe an uncle riding on tall tales and poetry.

One thing that did make me sad was the story of Bone Howes, Waits one-time manager. Howes was left behind after Waits married Brennan and left behind everyone who knew him in the "wild years". I don't know... He didn't stop drinking then. It feels kind of funny for me to think about this because I don't think I would have done any differently than Waits did. I just finished watching again the '90s tv show My So-Called Life. You know when Angela stops talking to her life-long friend Sharon because she's in a changing state of her life? She can't even say what it is just that she needs to be away from her to stop being the old her and transform into the new Angela? Waits and Howe remind me of this. Howe wasn't bitter about it, just sad. He doesn't really try to push things with Waits. I was happy when a long time later they can be friends again. Maybe he needed his friend. I don't know. I felt weird about it like there's another side of what you can need from another person. I get what I need from the music of Tom Waits. He gives me some place to go to in my mind. I won't get stuck. How could he ever get stuck in his own songs? That couldn't happen. They gotta have lives of their own. As far as his personal life goes, was there ever any more declaration of love than his declaration of love in those love songs about Brennan? I know that love can happen when I listen to a Tom Waits love song. When he says she is the person you'd want to go into the woods with? I guess the Tom Waits book of my dreams would tell you how you could go into the woods with yourself and come back out. How did he just say he'd have enough and that was that?

I did like reading this book. The best parts would feel like they were making those records then and there. It just got damned boring reading about the legal battles with the Cohens. It's a story as old as the music business. They own the rights to his early stuff. Not as bad as Michael Jackson buying up The Beatles, at least. Waits probably spends a lot of hair pulling time over that one. I still envy him getting to be him. He has all of that in his head. He gets to hear and see all of that.

[Željko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Čitam neke komentare da je ova knjiga poput proširene Wikipedie o Tom Waitsu - valjda su očekivali više detalja iz njegove spavaće sobe. Za mene, velikog fana Waitsa, sasvim zadovoljavajući spoj faktografije, citata, njegove uvrnute mitologije i klasičnog muzičkog novinarstva. Sve novo što sam saznao o Waitsu je samo učvrstilo moje mišljenje o potpuno unikatnoj ličnosti, umetniku kakvih je sve manje.

[Dead John Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I once heard a music journalist say that Tom Waits came from nowhere. He went on to explain that if you look at any artist you can usually see who they took their lead from. He then said that with Tom Waits there is only him, it is like he perfected his act in the desert then came to town. I didn't exactly agree with him but I thought that he voiced something that all Tom Waits fans instinctively feel. Whilst I would say that there were people before him there is no-one like him now.

I was nervous about reading this as I really like the music of Tom Waits and you know what it is like when your heroes are exposed to the light of inspection. But I was warmed to soon discover that Jay S Jacobs is a big fan too. This makes him somewhat biased when it comes to Tom Waits. Although this is update to an older biography it still read to me as if it was written yesterday. Being an "unauthorised" biography means that Tom Waits had no part it is creation or content therefore it is all secondhand reporting. Having said that it is nonetheless comprehensive.

One of the biggest elements in this is Tom Waits mythologising himself via stories, anecdotes and sayings that are attributed to him. You get the feeling that Tom Waits has created "Tom Waits" rather skillfully by merging the traits of the characters he sings about with details of his own life. Living in cheap hotels, drinking, hanging out with weird people, saying strange things in that raspy voice.

For example, on Letterman, Letterman reels off a list of films Waits had been in up to that point, but can't remember one. When he asks Tom which movie it was, Waits replies "Ben Hur". Waits talked about his folks who are teachers and about his children. Letterman asked how old his kids were, and Waits says "My boy is older than I am." Letterman asked Waits which place he likes living better - New York or LA. Waits sort of ducked the question, but said that NYC is like a great ship sinking in the ocean, and the ocean's on fire. Waits says that the cover photo of Raindogs was taken in Hamburg and he told the names of the two people in the picture. One was supposedly Rosicrucia.

There is lots here to please any fan. This book charts his career via his discography from whoa to go. It chronicles his life and times without destroying any of the mystique along the way.

I found this picture somewhere and I think it just kinda sums it all up

[East Bay J · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very excited to read this and was very disappointed when I got started. Even more disappointed by the end. It seems to me, in 2008, after fifty plus years of "rock journalism," that these sorts of puff piece, simpleton music bio writers would have been weeded out. Sent packing. Given their walking papers. The only thing that made this book enjoyable was Waits; his character, his stories, his points of view. If this had been a book about someone crap, like Oasis, I would have burned it. No, not true; I'd never have read it. Waits' story made Wild Years good enough to read and good enough to get me past Jacob's shallow, opinionated, uninformed, sophomoric, boring writing. F*ck me, he didn't even talk about "I Don't Want To Grow Up"! I've half a mind (two thirds, really) to find him, stand naked in his yard and play the song for him on my acoustic guitar after downing several Budweisers and a pint o' the brown. That should be enough to get me through getting arrested. It's like pot, folks; if you ain't gonna' grow the best, get a job. If you ain't gonna' write the best, write up to the standard of your subject, there are piles of dishes in restaurants all across the country that could use a serious cleaning.

Ah, it wasn't that bad. It just wasn't that good, y'know?

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

For fans of epidemiology fiction/suspense, this won't be a lasting favorite but is a fairly engaging read with plenty of red herrings and a surprise twist at the end. The characters are also likable and interesting. The quality of the writing is just a shade under what I would usually enjoy--the transitions between scenes, character arcs, and times are in a few places so sudden and not-set-up that I wondered if I had missed part of the book or a chunk had fallen out. Also, I see no need for the turn to melodrama and violence at the end; solving the epidemic puzzle is sufficient to carry the plot without putting the hero in danger--it's a stretch.So the epidemiology aspect is what kept me going, and I will read Pennie's next book, Tampered, to see what happens with the characters and what new puzzles arise.

[Jason Clarke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the chronological stepping through the albums. I would have appreciated more information about the actual recording process, especially as the author apparently had extensive access to Bones Howe, the producer on many of Waits' early albums. It appears as if Jacobs did not have the opportunity to speak with Waits himself for the book, turning into a survey of existing literature and interviews with ancillary characters. More of a glimpse in than a report out. The discography at the end of the book is comprehensive.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hardcore Waits fans will love it! Started pulling out all my old CDs.

[Pamela Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this. Took a bit to get into but quite thrilling near the end. Fun to read about local places (setting is Hamilton Ontario). Looking forward to reading the next one of the series.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a very good. However, it is about Tom Waits, so I read it. I learned a few things, and gained some insights into a life and career I didn't know all that much about before. I learned a bit about his wife and their partnership. Mostly I learned about his relationship to his art. He's like Miles Davis or Picasso. His need to grow and expand his vision with every album is astounding. He doesn't care if it's listenable, he's making it for himself, primarily. So that was good to learn. It's mostly snippets of quotations from interviews and a few quotes from acquaintances and people he's worked with. It just feels like a book anybody could have written if they did some research and didn't feel the need to go any deeper than the published interviews.

[Les75 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Appassionata cavalcata attraverso la bio-discografia di Tom Waits, dagli esordi al 2004. Si tratta di un volume molto godibile, con molte citazioni, notizie, fonti, interviste non solo a Waits, che raccontano i retroscena dei suoi pezzi più famosi e di tutti i suoi album, fino alle soglie di "Real Gone" (2004). L'unica pecca è proprio questa: oggi risulta un po' datato (nel senso di non aggiornato), proprio perché, interrompendo la narrazione degli eventi al 2004, non affronta i lavori di Waits successivi.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the life of Tom Waits is certainly an interesting one, this book feels a bit padded with the general music scene going on in the 70s and 80s, and not quite enough detail about the man himself. Waits' early works are not my favourite of his, which are not really included all that much in this book. Recommended for diehard fans, but far from essential reading.

[Sarah]

I read this before it was updated probably in 2000 or 2001. I don't usually do music biographies either from an objective source or from the source themselves. Made this one allowance. It wasn't very personal I remember and the writing was decent.

[Jenny Royal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully insightful, this book does not make Tom Waits out to be some kind of music deity. It appears to be a mostly factual account of Mr. Waits’ career.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I HAVE BEEN A GREAT FAN OF WAITS FOR A LONG TIME THIS BOOK SHOWS HOW WITTY AND TALENTED HE IS VERY ENJOYABLE

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it! I could relate to much of the writing angst and decisions about stepping away from the novel writing. Not sure I’d recommend it for non-writers though.

[Srđan Strajnić · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pročitajte prikaz na mom blogu - Read review on my blog

[Benito · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rollicking good read if you're a Waits fan. Unlike the more recent biography 'The Many Lives Of Tom Wait' by Patrick Humphries, Jacobs' tome tends as much towards the mythology that Waits has created around his professional life, ie. the seedy barfly piano-man turned psychedelic farmer, as it does towards his real life. (He is, in reality, neither a complete dipsomaniac nor teetotaller, but rather somewhere in that sane place in-between.)

More importantly, while sensation-seeking former NME hacks like Humphries are painting as much of his 'hidden' life and childhood as somehow sinister, if only through inference, Jacobs is talking to fellow musicians and producers, such as Waits long-time collaborator Bones Howes, to give the reader true insight into the creative process both on stage and in the recording studio.

Granted I couldn't finish Humphries' competing book so perhaps my opinion should be tempered with that knowledge (it was just too depressing and dull.) At the same time I sailed through Jacobs' book, so perhaps that says it all. Sure, even the latest edition lacks info on the 'Orphans' trilogy, but I still say it's the pick of the bunch. Like me you could flick to that last chapter on Orphans in Humphries book at the library after reading Jacobs' tome...

[Andrew Coltrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this at the Goodwill Bins and thought it would be a good opportunity to learn more about Tom Waits. It was published in 2000, so, of course it's not the most up to date. Not a problem. I was looking for history.

I learned a lot I didn't know, which is good, because Waits is the kind of artist for whom every additional layer of background knowledge leads to greater appreciation of the work.

This book, however, while informative, reads as a compilation of paraphrasings and quotes from transcripts of Morning Becomes Eclectic interviews.

There are photos and a comprehensive discography in the back. The index looks very professional as well. The quality of the journalism is, well, let's be honest. This is a book that could have been written without the author ever leaving his parents' basement.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Zol Szabo is a assistant health officer in Hamilton, Ont. He receives a call from a colleague informing him of 4 recent deaths caused by CJacob Disease. He is in a race for time as he tries to find out the cause before his boss calls in the provincial experts. He enlists the help from another health officer, Natasha, a young bright employee and a colleague in infectious disease, Hamish. He also decides to hire a private detective, Colleen to assist in the investigation. Lots of twists and turns as some of their findings almost prove disastrous for Zol's career and for his young son. The story includes a fair amount of medical jargon so a health background for the reader is invaluable. I'm looking forward to reading another of this author's books.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an epidemiology and biostatistics graduate, and PhD student in infectious diseases, I found this book to be extremely entertaining! It was so REAL.

I especially enjoyed ... well, I won't spoil it, but suffice it to say that there is a REALLY good mystery in there.

Read this book! This is what infectious disease epidemiology outbreak investigations are really like - if they are good (or, as the public may say, "Bad!").

To paraphrase the book, "Is it wrong to love outbreak investigations as much as I do?"

I answer: Yes. Deliciously, sinfully, yes.

Medical thriller, real infectious diseases, detective-noir, Hot Zone, the Ghost Map, and police procedural all rolled into one fast paced book.

[Greg Overall · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has been aware of Tom Waits mostly on the periphery, I really liked this book. The truth is I wanted to learn more about him and his music. I really hoped this book would make me a bigger fan of Waits, and it certainly did. The glimpses into his personal life were fairly limited, but that was fine with me. The book moved through his growth and progression as an artist in a chronological and logical fashion. I ended up buying 7 of his albums as I read this book. My favorite era is still the seventies when Waits worked closely with Bones Howe, but as I hoped, his entire catalog is growing on me.

[Dave Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tom Waits is such a uniquely interesting and elusive figure, and given this, any book about him has appeal. That being said, this could have been done better. I felt that the author spent too much time idolizing the artist, and the album descriptions read like overly-specific journal reviews. This would have worked well for me if I had been listening to the music while reading, but I wasn't. On the plus side, I learned more about one of my favorite artists and personalities and am motivated to listen to more of his music.

[Levi Makula · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is easy to write about a man such as Tom Waits and I don't feel like Jay S. Jacobs went about it in a way that grabs the attention of the readers. Some parts drag on and he spends an unnecessarily long time on describing the people involved in his life and not the man himself. However, upon saying this he also gives the reader an excellent timeline of Waits' life and extracts some very in-depth details from his childhood and early days which are very intriguing. Overall the book had the potential to be much better, yet it is still worth reading.

[Paulette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr Pennie is an infectious disease specialist and is well-qualified to write a medical mystery. Tainted is the first book in the series and had its strengths and its flaws. The medical part of the mystery was fascinating and complex. That was my favorite part and it kept my attention. I thought the characters were promising but underdeveloped. It's also possible that I was not fond of any of them, really. Definitely worth reading.

[Felisa Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written book with lots of interesting information about Tom Waits' music. Definitely written for serious fans. Jacobs is very respectful of Tom Waits' privacy, which I can appreciate because I revere Tom so much myself. However, to tell you the honest truth, I wouldn't have minded some salacious details.

[Leslie Zampetti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really, it's books like this that require half-stars. A little to predictable with abit too much backstory. Pennie's Zol Szabo is an interesting new detective - and the medical mystery is excellently derived. Not yet worthy of a 4, though. Here's hoping there's a sophomore effort and that it's even better.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading Tainted by Ross Pennie. It was especially interesting to read a novel with a setting that is so close to where I live. Pennie does an excellent job of building up the medical mystery and he has developed a set of characters that the reader can care about.

In all, it was well-crafted and entertaining. I look forward to reading his next novel.

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each of the characters in this book will remind you of someone you work with or personally know. Their personalities and foibles will have you shaking your head but cheering them on. It will make you think twice about retirement homes. You can't put it down once you've started. An excellent read.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Food supply contamination dominate the news media and two investigators, Zol Szabo, a public health doctor, and Hamish Wakefield, an infectious diseases specialist, come under pressure to find the cause before more victims show up on the autopsy table. Considering recent food contamination outbreaks, this is a very timely book.

[Rennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always interesting to read a book set in Canada that refers to communities like Guelph, Hamilton and Dundas. My apologies to the author if this element deflects the interest of some potential readers. A little uneven in places but overall a good story and I will likely read another one in this series.