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Pacific Coast Highway Mystery #2
Cinnamon Girl
Lyft driver-turned-sleuth Adam Zantz returns in a neo-noir dive into the dark side of rock and roll dreams.
Adam Zantz is still driving Lyft for a living, struggling to make ends meet while training to get his PI license, but he’s falling behind in his studies. When his beloved former piano teacher confides that he has only months to live and calls in a favor—to look into a long-cold murder case and retroactively prove his son’s innocence—Adam is compelled to honor the dying man’s request. He soon stumbles on a test pressing of a never-released LP and uncovers the shadowy story of a high school garage band lost to the tides of the early ‘80s music scene in Los Angeles, aka the Paisley Underground.
As Adam tracks down the former band members, one of them is slain before his eyes, taking with him the band’s dangerous secrets. Now Adam must act fast to catch the killer, tracing the band’s journey from the garage to the precipice of fame—a twisted tale marked by ambitious hucksters, crooked DJs, a wealthy patron with his own Hollywood aspirations, and the woman who held the key to the band’s triumph and ruin.
Cinnamon Girl is a suspenseful, moving tale of musical camaraderie, hunger for stardom, greed, lust, betrayal, and the hidden price of teenage yearning.
Adam Zantz is still driving Lyft for a living, struggling to make ends meet while training to get his PI license, but he’s falling behind in his studies. When his beloved former piano teacher confides that he has only months to live and calls in a favor—to look into a long-cold murder case and retroactively prove his son’s innocence—Adam is compelled to honor the dying man’s request. He soon stumbles on a test pressing of a never-released LP and uncovers the shadowy story of a high school garage band lost to the tides of the early ‘80s music scene in Los Angeles, aka the Paisley Underground.
As Adam tracks down the former band members, one of them is slain before his eyes, taking with him the band’s dangerous secrets. Now Adam must act fast to catch the killer, tracing the band’s journey from the garage to the precipice of fame—a twisted tale marked by ambitious hucksters, crooked DJs, a wealthy patron with his own Hollywood aspirations, and the woman who held the key to the band’s triumph and ruin.
Cinnamon Girl is a suspenseful, moving tale of musical camaraderie, hunger for stardom, greed, lust, betrayal, and the hidden price of teenage yearning.
352 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 21, 2024
12 people are currently reading
3429 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Weizmann
12 books52 followersDaniel Weizmann is the author the Pacific Coast Highway Mystery series. Crime fiction legend T. Jefferson Parker described series debut The Last Songbird as "rock noir at its best...half Warren Zevon and half Raymond Chandler." New York Times bestselling author Reed Farrel Coleman described the second title in the series, Cinnamon Girl, as “Evocative, nostalgic, haunting, twisty, and true...everything there is to love about a classic PI novel." Daniel's work has also appeared in the LA Times, the UK Guardian, Billboard, and California Magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 14, 2025
The first half of this book popped. Los Angeles is an interesting city. One reason cities like Cairo and Shanghai aren't mentioned in the same breath as LA, New York, Paris or London is that these latter four are filled with people from everywhere, giving them a vitality lacking in cities that are merely big. Weizmann does a great job of conveying that.
Like a Don Winslow story, this novel just takes on a life of its own and never stops moving while the reader hangs on by their fingernails, trying to keep up. But sadly, about halfway through, the momentum starts to fail, the spectre of Hollywood creeps in and by the end, we find ourselves in a shootout in an abandoned warehouse. Geez, never heard that one before..... 🙄😒
A pity. Authors: Make books shorter and better. You're not being paid by the word.
Like a Don Winslow story, this novel just takes on a life of its own and never stops moving while the reader hangs on by their fingernails, trying to keep up. But sadly, about halfway through, the momentum starts to fail, the spectre of Hollywood creeps in and by the end, we find ourselves in a shootout in an abandoned warehouse. Geez, never heard that one before..... 🙄😒
A pity. Authors: Make books shorter and better. You're not being paid by the word.
March 9, 2024
Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC of this novel. This feels like a throwback book about a throwback band. But in a good way. Zantz, the main character, is the classic LA gumshoe. A real Philip Marlowe, except that he is trying to get in touch his feelings and he manages to get everyone to talk mostly via empathy and not tough guy antics. Weizmann's writing, which is lyrical and provides only enough detail to get the gist of the thing and leaves the rest to the reader, feels like a dream, but that masks a relentless, classic noir structure that takes the reader into all the distinctive oddball cubbyholes in LA on the way to the novel's surprising conclusion. Both novels in this series are very good.
July 30, 2024
2.75 - it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t that good either. I didn’t predict the ending, but it felt convoluted specifically so we couldn’t predict it. When you need a whole two chapters at the end to explain the killer, it probably doesn’t work.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 4, 2024
Adam bumbles his way through a mystery that’s decades old. Not sure about the playlist at the end, must be something I missed.
June 1, 2024
Simply superb.
Tightly plotted, wonderfully written, you can smell the sea by PCH.
Interesting plot and a great sequel.
Well worth a read.
Tightly plotted, wonderfully written, you can smell the sea by PCH.
Interesting plot and a great sequel.
Well worth a read.
June 2, 2024
Daniel Weizmann’s unlikely Lyft-driving detective, Adam “Addy” Zantz, returns in CINNAMON GIRL, the twisty follow-up to his 2023 neo-noir, THE LAST SONGBIRD. Once again, Addy finds himself entangled in a case with musical overtones, this time when he’s tasked with investigating the murder of a teen active in LA’s mid-’80s Paisley Underground music scene.
Charles Elkaim, a close friend of Addy’s late uncle Herschel, has reached out with a deathbed request. In 1984, his 18-year-old son, Emil, was arrested for the murder of his friend and bandmate, Reynaldo Durazo. While in jail awaiting trial, Emil was killed in a revenge slaying. Charles never doubted his son’s innocence. So when Emil’s former bandmate, Devon Hawley Jr., unexpectedly shows up at Charles’ retirement home and starts hinting that he can clear Emil’s name, the elderly man is desperate to hear the truth. But Devon has failed to appear for an arranged meeting, and Charles has no way of getting in touch with him.
Addy reluctantly agrees to search for Devon and find out what he knows. He suspects that Charles has fallen victim to a scammer or “raging loon.” But he’s curious as well. As a child, Addy knew Emil, whom he remembers as a handsome and charismatic “teenage prophet” with an acoustic guitar. Plus, doing a favor for Herschel’s friend could help balance the karmic books. “In the debit column of the spirit, I still owed him,” Addy thinks of his uncle, who adopted him at age 12 and supported him as he chased his dream of becoming a songwriter. But uncle and son had a falling-out over Addy’s directionless life (and constant pleas for money). When Herschel died, they were estranged. Addy has yet to fully unpack his complicated feelings about the loss.
Addy still isn’t a licensed PI (he’s taking classes, sort of), but that doesn’t stop him from diving into the investigation. His search for Devon leads him to the home of aging femme fatale Marjorie Persky, the mother of Emil’s girlfriend, Cynthia, aka Cinnamon, who died of an overdose a few years after Emil’s murder. In Cinnamon’s perfectly preserved teenage bedroom, Addy finds a test pressing of a record by Emil’s band, The Daily Telegraph, which is barely a footnote in musical history. But a lack of stardom doesn’t mean a lack of drama, as Addy tries to uncover the truth about what happened the night Reynaldo was killed. His investigation pulls him into a world of big-talking producers and musical hangers-on, of fame-hungry wannabes and starry-eyed romantics skulking around the fringes of the entertainment industry.
Weizmann’s sophomore effort illuminates the scuzzy, seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, a shadow city home to people who are, as one character puts it, not “lot appropriate.” As he chases the truth, Addy visits homeless encampments under freeways, a trailer stuffed with pop detritus, and desert antique malls crammed full of 20th-century flotsam --- “the endless rows and stacks and corners of shrapnel from America the Great.” His characters tend to have one eye on the past. Even the teenage members of The Daily Telegraph were nostalgic for an imagined ’60s they never experienced. As an adult, Devon makes his living crafting miniatures for film sets, an art form in danger of being eclipsed by CGI. His passion project is a vast model of the city of Los Angeles, with each neighborhood representing a different bygone era: the Sunset Strip of the mid-1960s, Bunker Hill in the 1920s. It’s “urban chaos as shrunken head,” Addy notes.
While CINNAMON GIRL’s characters and scenes are evocative, the plot is shaggy. Like a band noodling around at practice, it occasionally wanders off in random, not always productive directions. At one point, Addy admits that he’s not even sure what case he’s trying to solve. Along the way, he infiltrates a bucolic yet sinister retirement community where he has an encounter with a pair of bizarrely gangsterish former DJs who run the place. Later, he visits the mountaintop compound of a cult-like psychologist who opens his mind with some unconventional therapy. Addy’s almost-romance with another musician goes nowhere.
Perhaps because of these diversions, the eventual solution to the core mystery feels somewhat abrupt, with the villain’s motives more convenient than plausible. But as with many noirs, much of the book’s charm lies in the journey, not the destination. Addy doesn’t have it all figured out, and he probably never will. But his chaotic adventures across LA are nonetheless entertaining and insightful, painting a vivid picture of a city full of misfits, dropouts and dreamers.
Reviewed by Megan Elliott
Charles Elkaim, a close friend of Addy’s late uncle Herschel, has reached out with a deathbed request. In 1984, his 18-year-old son, Emil, was arrested for the murder of his friend and bandmate, Reynaldo Durazo. While in jail awaiting trial, Emil was killed in a revenge slaying. Charles never doubted his son’s innocence. So when Emil’s former bandmate, Devon Hawley Jr., unexpectedly shows up at Charles’ retirement home and starts hinting that he can clear Emil’s name, the elderly man is desperate to hear the truth. But Devon has failed to appear for an arranged meeting, and Charles has no way of getting in touch with him.
Addy reluctantly agrees to search for Devon and find out what he knows. He suspects that Charles has fallen victim to a scammer or “raging loon.” But he’s curious as well. As a child, Addy knew Emil, whom he remembers as a handsome and charismatic “teenage prophet” with an acoustic guitar. Plus, doing a favor for Herschel’s friend could help balance the karmic books. “In the debit column of the spirit, I still owed him,” Addy thinks of his uncle, who adopted him at age 12 and supported him as he chased his dream of becoming a songwriter. But uncle and son had a falling-out over Addy’s directionless life (and constant pleas for money). When Herschel died, they were estranged. Addy has yet to fully unpack his complicated feelings about the loss.
Addy still isn’t a licensed PI (he’s taking classes, sort of), but that doesn’t stop him from diving into the investigation. His search for Devon leads him to the home of aging femme fatale Marjorie Persky, the mother of Emil’s girlfriend, Cynthia, aka Cinnamon, who died of an overdose a few years after Emil’s murder. In Cinnamon’s perfectly preserved teenage bedroom, Addy finds a test pressing of a record by Emil’s band, The Daily Telegraph, which is barely a footnote in musical history. But a lack of stardom doesn’t mean a lack of drama, as Addy tries to uncover the truth about what happened the night Reynaldo was killed. His investigation pulls him into a world of big-talking producers and musical hangers-on, of fame-hungry wannabes and starry-eyed romantics skulking around the fringes of the entertainment industry.
Weizmann’s sophomore effort illuminates the scuzzy, seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, a shadow city home to people who are, as one character puts it, not “lot appropriate.” As he chases the truth, Addy visits homeless encampments under freeways, a trailer stuffed with pop detritus, and desert antique malls crammed full of 20th-century flotsam --- “the endless rows and stacks and corners of shrapnel from America the Great.” His characters tend to have one eye on the past. Even the teenage members of The Daily Telegraph were nostalgic for an imagined ’60s they never experienced. As an adult, Devon makes his living crafting miniatures for film sets, an art form in danger of being eclipsed by CGI. His passion project is a vast model of the city of Los Angeles, with each neighborhood representing a different bygone era: the Sunset Strip of the mid-1960s, Bunker Hill in the 1920s. It’s “urban chaos as shrunken head,” Addy notes.
While CINNAMON GIRL’s characters and scenes are evocative, the plot is shaggy. Like a band noodling around at practice, it occasionally wanders off in random, not always productive directions. At one point, Addy admits that he’s not even sure what case he’s trying to solve. Along the way, he infiltrates a bucolic yet sinister retirement community where he has an encounter with a pair of bizarrely gangsterish former DJs who run the place. Later, he visits the mountaintop compound of a cult-like psychologist who opens his mind with some unconventional therapy. Addy’s almost-romance with another musician goes nowhere.
Perhaps because of these diversions, the eventual solution to the core mystery feels somewhat abrupt, with the villain’s motives more convenient than plausible. But as with many noirs, much of the book’s charm lies in the journey, not the destination. Addy doesn’t have it all figured out, and he probably never will. But his chaotic adventures across LA are nonetheless entertaining and insightful, painting a vivid picture of a city full of misfits, dropouts and dreamers.
Reviewed by Megan Elliott
May 25, 2024
Adam Zantz is still working as a Lyft driver, trying to make ends meet, but now he has a little more focus on his own life. After finally giving up on his dream of being a successful songwriter and performer, he has decided to study for his private investigator licence.
He is called to the bedside of his dying former piano teacher, Charles Elkaim, who has a job for him. Charles has pancreatic cancer and just months to live, but he is a tough and determined old man, a survivor of the Holocaust. He doesn’t care that Adam hasn’t got a licence yet and cannot wait until he does, so how can Adam refuse. Charles wants him to prove that his son Emil was innocent of the murder he was charged with when he himself was shanked and murdered whilst on remand. No easy task made even more difficult by it taking place over thirty years ago.
Adam has mixed emotions and motivations for agreeing to do the job. There is the love and affection for an old family friend and personal mentor and the desire to give him a sense of closure in his final days. Charles was Adam’s uncle Hersch’s best friend and Hersch was as good as a father to Adam, taking him in when his mother went off the rails. Latterly they were estranged though and hadn’t made up before Hersch’s death, much to Adam’s shame and regret. Will establishing Emil’s innocence, or not, help salve Adam’s feelings of guilt?
When Adam was a young boy, he was in awe of Emil, the coolest dude on the block, his first hero. Emil’s girlfriend was Cynthia, known to everyone as Cinnamon, a girl to capture men’s hearts, the sort of girl who could make you happy. When Emil was murdered, she ran away and died a few years later of an overdose, a tragic end to a perfect couple. When Adam speaks to Cinnamon’s mother, he discovers a demo pressing of an LP by a high school garage band they were part of. An unexpected lead to the past, the Paisley Underground psychedelic scene and long buried secrets.
The plot is straightforward, discovering who killed Reynaldo if Emil didn’t, but complexity is added with each layer of truth uncovered and the occasional red herring. The story arc is a journey into the past, well this is a Pacific Coast Highway story so buckle up and enjoy the ride, it’s a beauty. One that takes in the wealth and mansions of the successful and the ‘Tent Town’ of the lost and dispossessed pitched at the freeway underpass, and many steps between. A warts and all portrayal of ‘Tinsel Town’ but one written with an acutely observant eye and clear affection for the place.
Zantz may be an unlikely Seamus, but he has the DNA of the classic Fictional West Coast PI. His accommodation is low rent, he lives in a studio in a studio having taken a room in a recording studio as a crash pad. He eschews guns, is prone to fall for a Micky Finn and comes off worse in any violent exchange. He is determined though and has a clear moral compass. Comparisons to Raymond Chandler are obvious but to me this is not a homage but something entirely different, the author has captured the spirit but within an unusual setting.
Some characters make a welcome return like Ziva the wheelchair bound artist and Fry the lawyer come paparazzi, but there is a wonderful cast of oddballs too. These include health and wellness hucksters and a pair of cheesy/sleazy radio DJs who help to put the trope one step behind clowns in the list of the disturbing. This is one author who manages to nail a character no matter how small the appearance.
There is humour but not the wise cracking of Philip Marlowe but a rich seam of gentle Jewish humour, self-depreciating but with the neurosis dialled down, being quirky and quite affecting. There is something quite life affirming with the gentle banter particularly between Zantz and Fry, and I love the throwaway Jewish expressions which pepper the excellent dialogue.
This is a novel set largely in the Jewish community and is a story rich in family relationships, commitments, trust and support, where elders are loved and respected. A tight-knit community of families and friends where the pain of disappointment and rejection is deeply felt, but as Adam discovers where redemption is always possible.
He is called to the bedside of his dying former piano teacher, Charles Elkaim, who has a job for him. Charles has pancreatic cancer and just months to live, but he is a tough and determined old man, a survivor of the Holocaust. He doesn’t care that Adam hasn’t got a licence yet and cannot wait until he does, so how can Adam refuse. Charles wants him to prove that his son Emil was innocent of the murder he was charged with when he himself was shanked and murdered whilst on remand. No easy task made even more difficult by it taking place over thirty years ago.
Adam has mixed emotions and motivations for agreeing to do the job. There is the love and affection for an old family friend and personal mentor and the desire to give him a sense of closure in his final days. Charles was Adam’s uncle Hersch’s best friend and Hersch was as good as a father to Adam, taking him in when his mother went off the rails. Latterly they were estranged though and hadn’t made up before Hersch’s death, much to Adam’s shame and regret. Will establishing Emil’s innocence, or not, help salve Adam’s feelings of guilt?
When Adam was a young boy, he was in awe of Emil, the coolest dude on the block, his first hero. Emil’s girlfriend was Cynthia, known to everyone as Cinnamon, a girl to capture men’s hearts, the sort of girl who could make you happy. When Emil was murdered, she ran away and died a few years later of an overdose, a tragic end to a perfect couple. When Adam speaks to Cinnamon’s mother, he discovers a demo pressing of an LP by a high school garage band they were part of. An unexpected lead to the past, the Paisley Underground psychedelic scene and long buried secrets.
The plot is straightforward, discovering who killed Reynaldo if Emil didn’t, but complexity is added with each layer of truth uncovered and the occasional red herring. The story arc is a journey into the past, well this is a Pacific Coast Highway story so buckle up and enjoy the ride, it’s a beauty. One that takes in the wealth and mansions of the successful and the ‘Tent Town’ of the lost and dispossessed pitched at the freeway underpass, and many steps between. A warts and all portrayal of ‘Tinsel Town’ but one written with an acutely observant eye and clear affection for the place.
Zantz may be an unlikely Seamus, but he has the DNA of the classic Fictional West Coast PI. His accommodation is low rent, he lives in a studio in a studio having taken a room in a recording studio as a crash pad. He eschews guns, is prone to fall for a Micky Finn and comes off worse in any violent exchange. He is determined though and has a clear moral compass. Comparisons to Raymond Chandler are obvious but to me this is not a homage but something entirely different, the author has captured the spirit but within an unusual setting.
Some characters make a welcome return like Ziva the wheelchair bound artist and Fry the lawyer come paparazzi, but there is a wonderful cast of oddballs too. These include health and wellness hucksters and a pair of cheesy/sleazy radio DJs who help to put the trope one step behind clowns in the list of the disturbing. This is one author who manages to nail a character no matter how small the appearance.
There is humour but not the wise cracking of Philip Marlowe but a rich seam of gentle Jewish humour, self-depreciating but with the neurosis dialled down, being quirky and quite affecting. There is something quite life affirming with the gentle banter particularly between Zantz and Fry, and I love the throwaway Jewish expressions which pepper the excellent dialogue.
This is a novel set largely in the Jewish community and is a story rich in family relationships, commitments, trust and support, where elders are loved and respected. A tight-knit community of families and friends where the pain of disappointment and rejection is deeply felt, but as Adam discovers where redemption is always possible.
May 12, 2024
📚 PRE-PUBLICATION BOOK REVIEW 📚
Cinnamon Girl By Daniel Weizmann
Publication Date: May 28, 2024
Publisher: Melville House Publishing
📚MY RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
📚MY REVIEW:
This was a gritty thriller, set amidst the backdrop of the LA music scene, with a pseudo private detective who is a true guy's guy. The story really kept my interest as the layers of the decades-old mystery unfolded piece by piece. Anytime I had to put the book down over the last couple days, I found myself thinking about its story and wondering what was going to happen next. There was just something about this plotline that pulled me in and intrigued me.
The writing style is definitively masculine. I don't really know if that's the right way to describe it...but the writing is matter-of-fact, gritty, and without any descriptive fluff. The characters were real, they were flawed, and they were written in such a way that you felt connected to the history shared in these pages. As I read, I found myself caring about what was ultimately going to happen to everyone and how this twisty mystery was all going to wind up for them. The ending was satisfying and unexpected, and I didn't guess how it was going to go until I was pretty close to the end.
Overall, this was a great book! It's the second book in this Pacific Coast Highway Mystery series, and while there were a couple early-on references to the first book, I didn't feel like I was lost because I hadn't read it. I'm curious about the main character's history though, so the first book is now on my TBR list. Weizmann's book was unexpected, because I didn't know a lot going into it. I haven't heard much about it -- and I don't know why. I found that I really enjoyed this read and I absolutely recommend this one. I want to send a big thank you to NetGalley and Melville House Publishing for gifting me this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
#CinnamonGirl #DanielWeitzmann #NetGalley #ARC #bookreviews #bookrecommendations #bookcommunity #thrillerreads #thrilleraddict
Cinnamon Girl By Daniel Weizmann
Publication Date: May 28, 2024
Publisher: Melville House Publishing
📚MY RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
📚MY REVIEW:
This was a gritty thriller, set amidst the backdrop of the LA music scene, with a pseudo private detective who is a true guy's guy. The story really kept my interest as the layers of the decades-old mystery unfolded piece by piece. Anytime I had to put the book down over the last couple days, I found myself thinking about its story and wondering what was going to happen next. There was just something about this plotline that pulled me in and intrigued me.
The writing style is definitively masculine. I don't really know if that's the right way to describe it...but the writing is matter-of-fact, gritty, and without any descriptive fluff. The characters were real, they were flawed, and they were written in such a way that you felt connected to the history shared in these pages. As I read, I found myself caring about what was ultimately going to happen to everyone and how this twisty mystery was all going to wind up for them. The ending was satisfying and unexpected, and I didn't guess how it was going to go until I was pretty close to the end.
Overall, this was a great book! It's the second book in this Pacific Coast Highway Mystery series, and while there were a couple early-on references to the first book, I didn't feel like I was lost because I hadn't read it. I'm curious about the main character's history though, so the first book is now on my TBR list. Weizmann's book was unexpected, because I didn't know a lot going into it. I haven't heard much about it -- and I don't know why. I found that I really enjoyed this read and I absolutely recommend this one. I want to send a big thank you to NetGalley and Melville House Publishing for gifting me this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
#CinnamonGirl #DanielWeitzmann #NetGalley #ARC #bookreviews #bookrecommendations #bookcommunity #thrillerreads #thrilleraddict
August 29, 2024
I was a pretty big fan of the first novel in this series, 'The Last Songbird,' which was published approximately a year before the second book, 'Cinnamon Girl.' The first one made me want to read more of the adventures of amateur detective Adam Zantz, so I was quite excited to read this follow-up to it.
While I liked certain elements of 'Cinnamon Girl,' I didn't think it was as compelling as 'The Last Songbird.' For whatever reasons, it didn't 'hook' me until I was more than halfway through reading it. Shortly before that, I would read a few chapters and put the book down and then spend several days until I felt motivated to pick it back up again. This happened to me multiple times over a couple of weeks.
I was pretty close to giving up on it, but I'm very glad that I didn't do that. The story did finally grab ahold of me in the later chapters and I was impressed with how the author resolved the main mysteries involved in the storyline.
Was it enough to make me want to read the third book, if there is one? Yes, probably. I like the main character and will be curious to see what kinds of situations the author puts him in next.
NOTE: I received an advanced reading copy of this novel from the publisher.
While I liked certain elements of 'Cinnamon Girl,' I didn't think it was as compelling as 'The Last Songbird.' For whatever reasons, it didn't 'hook' me until I was more than halfway through reading it. Shortly before that, I would read a few chapters and put the book down and then spend several days until I felt motivated to pick it back up again. This happened to me multiple times over a couple of weeks.
I was pretty close to giving up on it, but I'm very glad that I didn't do that. The story did finally grab ahold of me in the later chapters and I was impressed with how the author resolved the main mysteries involved in the storyline.
Was it enough to make me want to read the third book, if there is one? Yes, probably. I like the main character and will be curious to see what kinds of situations the author puts him in next.
NOTE: I received an advanced reading copy of this novel from the publisher.
June 23, 2024
As a favor to the dying father of a childhood friend, Adam Zantz, a Lyft driver and wannabe detective, searches for clues to exonerate his son's death, a young man Adam idolized. A record pressing from the '80s garage band that almost made it is unearthed as the remaining members are being killed. The clues form a treacherous labyrinth, filled with lying, conniving, and smarmy characters eager to snuff the existence of the almost-famous band and, maybe, Adam. Adam's dedication is admirable. He is an honorable man, captured by the music and the mysteries of the search. Self-actualization seems to be a goal.
Mr. Weizmann's writing is lyric and filled with fresh descriptive language as he builds an entertaining mystery/noir ride that takes his readers into distinctive oddball cubbyholes and niches in '80s LA. The novel writhes and twists and surprises and I highly recommend it.
Mr. Weizmann's writing is lyric and filled with fresh descriptive language as he builds an entertaining mystery/noir ride that takes his readers into distinctive oddball cubbyholes and niches in '80s LA. The novel writhes and twists and surprises and I highly recommend it.
July 25, 2024
There is a great deal to dislike about Adam Zantz, the hero of Daniel Weizmann’s “Cinnamon Girl” (Melville House). He refuses to take responsibility for his actions and often spins a lie, rather than tell the complete truth. Yet, readers will once again become so absorbed in his story that they’ll forgive him all of his sins. “Cinnamon Girl” is the second book in the Pacific Coast Highway Mystery series, and it offers just as much fun and suspense – with a side of music – as the first book, “The Last Songbird.”
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/book...
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/book...
July 13, 2024
Didn’t Live Up to the First One
I really enjoyed Daniel Weizmann’s first book in this series The Last Songbird so I downloaded this as soon as I saw it. Maybe because the bar was set so high for me now but this one just didn’t live up to my expectations. Adam Zantz is still a cool PI with a wealth of musical knowledge and references but the story line itself didn’t grab me like the first one and as it unfolded it got more and more outrageous.
Oh well. They can’t all be 5 stars
I really enjoyed Daniel Weizmann’s first book in this series The Last Songbird so I downloaded this as soon as I saw it. Maybe because the bar was set so high for me now but this one just didn’t live up to my expectations. Adam Zantz is still a cool PI with a wealth of musical knowledge and references but the story line itself didn’t grab me like the first one and as it unfolded it got more and more outrageous.
Oh well. They can’t all be 5 stars
September 16, 2024
The Past's Knocking and it Wants its Closure...
It’s a neo-noir but less seedy shadowed rooms and alleys and more draggin’ of the P.I. in training around from schmuck to schmuck. The writing is wonderfully descriptive and evokes the L.A. scene; then and now. Nods to the town, music history, and a few murders. My kinda book. There are a dozen characters with distinct personalities. But, who’s the murderer and why? Ya just gotta read and find out.
It’s a neo-noir but less seedy shadowed rooms and alleys and more draggin’ of the P.I. in training around from schmuck to schmuck. The writing is wonderfully descriptive and evokes the L.A. scene; then and now. Nods to the town, music history, and a few murders. My kinda book. There are a dozen characters with distinct personalities. But, who’s the murderer and why? Ya just gotta read and find out.
October 7, 2024
The mystery genre can barely contain this dense multi-layered investigation into the murder of a 1960’s fictional garage band member. Seeking out and questioning assorted colorful survivors not only forces an amateur P.I. to address his own conflicts and anxieties but triggers more killings. Rock n’ Roll is treated as a rhapsodic and dangerous addiction for both players and fans, the firmer lethally possessed by dreams of stardom.
April 30, 2025
“… it was bad enough being a penniless Lyft driver, I didn’t also have to announce that I was the fake Sherlock Holmes”
Adam Zantz, Lyft driver and small time p.i… seeks to do a favour for a family friend. Music and mystery follow as he seeks to uncover what happened to a band some thirty years before.
I like this series - it’s the second - and Zantz is an interesting character; Jewish, living hand to mouth driving, sense of family, and a desire to dig for details.
Adam Zantz, Lyft driver and small time p.i… seeks to do a favour for a family friend. Music and mystery follow as he seeks to uncover what happened to a band some thirty years before.
I like this series - it’s the second - and Zantz is an interesting character; Jewish, living hand to mouth driving, sense of family, and a desire to dig for details.
June 20, 2024
I knew just from the preview that I was going to love this book.
An onion with many layers and a hell of a great story.
Thank you Daniel...Please keep them coming...
An onion with many layers and a hell of a great story.
Thank you Daniel...Please keep them coming...
September 23, 2024
might’ve enjoyed this more if i realized it was part of a series lol
December 5, 2024
I felt cheated at the end. I’d suffered through all the nutty go-no-where plot lines for this?
June 13, 2024
Following on from the highly acclaimed The Last Songbird we see the return of Adam Zantz in Cinnamon Girl in another highly accomplished novel. I don’t say this lightly but I did enjoy this novel more. I loved the plotting within the book what seems to be a simple premise is in reality an intrictate and slick plot which twists and turns and throws moments which are totally un expected.
Having the crime set in the past makes the investigation more of a challenge for Adam, also not been an official investigator makes life difficult, however, this all played wonderfully in bringing the story to life, obviously it has its own problems but slowly Adam starts to piece things together and realises that all is not as it seems. It has a natural pace about it, and slowly things begin to piece together
I like the way that Adam is written, you form a metal picture of him, appears on the surface to be a loner living above a recording studio, but his heart is there with a sense of duty to reach the truth.
At its heart music plays a loud and vital role in the book, carrying with it its own soundtrack
The ending was as refreshing as it was satisfying, certainly threw in a few curve balls, which I hadn’t seen coming, almost smacks you in the face.
Whilst set in the present day, there is more than a nod to the American classics of the 30s and 40s, a delicious slice of American Noir, however, the author ensures throught the writing that this is his story and not a homage to the past
A read which demands your attention, the quality of the writing draws you in, the narrative has you wrapped in its deeply rich and layered storytelling, a suspenseful story, where the drama constantly ratchets up, in someways a story set in the past where consequences and choices made have repercussions
A book which paints a vivid picture with its prose, captures a side of Los Angeles not necessarily familiar but the writing evokes a deep sense of place
Daniel Weizmann is definitely an author to watch out for.
Will appeal to all crime fans, a deeply satisfying read
Having the crime set in the past makes the investigation more of a challenge for Adam, also not been an official investigator makes life difficult, however, this all played wonderfully in bringing the story to life, obviously it has its own problems but slowly Adam starts to piece things together and realises that all is not as it seems. It has a natural pace about it, and slowly things begin to piece together
I like the way that Adam is written, you form a metal picture of him, appears on the surface to be a loner living above a recording studio, but his heart is there with a sense of duty to reach the truth.
At its heart music plays a loud and vital role in the book, carrying with it its own soundtrack
The ending was as refreshing as it was satisfying, certainly threw in a few curve balls, which I hadn’t seen coming, almost smacks you in the face.
Whilst set in the present day, there is more than a nod to the American classics of the 30s and 40s, a delicious slice of American Noir, however, the author ensures throught the writing that this is his story and not a homage to the past
A read which demands your attention, the quality of the writing draws you in, the narrative has you wrapped in its deeply rich and layered storytelling, a suspenseful story, where the drama constantly ratchets up, in someways a story set in the past where consequences and choices made have repercussions
A book which paints a vivid picture with its prose, captures a side of Los Angeles not necessarily familiar but the writing evokes a deep sense of place
Daniel Weizmann is definitely an author to watch out for.
Will appeal to all crime fans, a deeply satisfying read
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