Dead Idol

by Nick Tyrone

A twisty and page-turning debut thriller, perfect for fans of James Patterson, Andrew Raymond and Sam Bourne.

In a world of fake news, who can you trust?

Global pop sensation Noah Hastings takes to the stage for his sold-out concert. After singing his latest hit, Noah detonates a bomb strapped to his chest, killing himself and ninety-one of his fans.

Speculation about the pop star's motivation for the crime runs riot until the authorities pin the blame on fundamentalist Islam. But what happens when Noah's inspiration turns out to be another ideology?

Nina Hargreaves, an investigative journalist, travels around America searching for the real story. She gets close to the truth - but risks losing everything she has in the process...

Genres: Thriller

224 pages, Paperback

Published February 20, 2020

About the author

Nick Tyrone has lived in London for almost twenty years, having moved to the UK when he was in his mid-twenties. He has run several British think tanks, including CentreForum.

Nick writes for outlets such as the New Statesman, but can be reliably found at www.nicktyrone.com, where he writes almost daily.

He has a new book, "Politics is Murder", published in 2020 by Headline Accent.

Reviews

[Gerald Stokes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this after I'd read Tyrone's brilliant "Politics is Murder" and while it is very, very different from that book, so much so it's amazing it's from the same author, "Dead Idol" gripped me equally. It's another instant classic.

It concerns several things. One is the way when we get our news from increasingly partisan news sources, this makes us live in a bubble where we can't understand those who view the world differently. A second thing the book deals with is Islam within western culture. I don't want to say more to spoil any of it, but I am pleasantly surprised a mainstream publisher put this out there. In an age where no one wants to talk about this issue, I am impressed that there is a book that deals with all this such an unguarded way.

Like "Politics is Murder", a classic. Don't hesitate.

[Jamie J'Accuse · Rating 5 out of 5]

The pop idol, almost a relic out of time, a comforting presence from one's childhood, becomes the mass murderer of children. Panic takes hold but the fractured narrative of our current society is unable to disentangle truth from fiction. Eventually, even the woman who uncovers the truth is destroyed by it. Nihilism is the winner, as it always is.

[Kafka Stan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The skewering of the modern media we all required. The truth as revealed from different sources, never telling us what we require. The good people fail while the evil triumph. Those that seek knowledge are left broken, while those who give into nihilism get what they are after. Society suffers.

[Hailey Bruckner · Rating 4 out of 5]

The part where he does a parody of Slavoj Zizek was prime. Best part of the book. Other parts are good but lots of it I could leave. I get what he's going for here but it's kind of obvious in places.

[Heather O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful novel about the way we communicate today. It's about how everything comes down to partisan considerations and everyone has their own truth. We can't unite any longer, even around large scale tragedies of the kind that used to bring everyone together, like 9/11.

[Adam Savant · Rating 5 out of 5]

The homophobia from the central character was a turn off at first, until I realised the author was trying to say something about repression. Noah seems like the in the closet southern type who can't bring himself to come out. That's why he doodles himself to such lame porn. He wants to watch gay stuff but can't bring himself to do it. That's why he has to kill himself and bring so many along the way. You feel like if you could just talk to Noah and tell me being gay is all okay, catastrophe might have been averted.

[Ki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly I found this read rather patchy as it switched from each chapter being a new article to then having the odd chapter in the pov of the main villain. Due to this I found I couldn't really get into the story and found it to be a drag to read.

[Lia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dead Idol's premise is so interesting but I found the blurb super misleading as it suggests the novel's gonna be a twisty crime mystery led by Nina Hargreaves, but it turns out to mostly be a commentary on how the media reacts to tragedy as journalists grasp at straws to try and work out what Noah's motivations for bombing his own concert were, constantly rehashing the same couple of ideas, and we know next to nothing about Nina other than she writes a few articles and then loses her job.

Most of the book is written as articles, but we also see a bit of Noah's perspective to show the reader what the real reason for the bombings were, but these parts really fell short for me since Noah was almost cartoonishly unpleasant and chauvinistic to the point that he didn't feel like a real person (kind of Steven Stelfox style), and although we get sense that Noah was once an okay guy who's led himself to a life he has no control over and now deeply resents, I still found him two dimensional and would've loved some more nuanced characterisation.

[Franca Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great look at how divided the world has become in the age of social media. A tragedy occurs, involving children no less, and still people cannot come together and form a view about it as one. Right-wing people see it through their view, left-wing people through their view and as a result, everything gets distorted. What is the truth? This is a good guide as to why it is so difficult to discover in 2023.

[Kelly Silver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read three books from this author, I felt this was the best by miles. This one is about something, not just the way that certain religions and ideas are demonised by society and then blown out of all proportion but how much of human cruelty is banal. Psychopaths are kind of boring and empty and do things for the hell of it. I like the way the book explored the reprocussions of that.

[Akane Watanabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brutal and grim but with lots of laugh out loud moments. I think this author is good at combining the dark and the funny in a unique way. Felt very tense in the lead up to the bomb going off, even though the whole book was leading to this place and you knew it was going to happen. Few authors I think know how to make you feel this way.

[Jessica Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was not at all what I expected. I don't think I've ever read a book that was structured like this before. I wasn't sure for the first 50 pages or so but then I clicked into it and got it. I can imagine some people might be put off by the novel way it is put together but in the end I think that's what makes it special.

[Suzie Shields · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strange style of editing, although I think it works in the end. I liked each voice, even though the style became a little much from an intellectual perspective on things. Still thought it was riveting though.

[Kimberly Stills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. I've never read anything like it in terms of the way it is structured. Made it slightly hard to follow at times but worth it. Liked the emergence of Nina Hargreaves as the protagonist. Also liked the Slovenian Zizek guy, although three times was a lot.

[Aisha Berile · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one kind of blew me away. Didn't know where it was going for a long time and then when the twists came, they were pretty awesome. The main character is kind of a douche bag but that's kind of the whole idea, I guess.

[Claude Reiter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully experimental work that explains the fragmented world of social media better than anything I've come across before. It is therefore fragmented as a story by the nature of what it is doing, which makes me fear for the book's commercial prospects.

[Sunny Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Given it started with the ending, this book managed to have a decent twist or two in the tail. Noah is despicable but that's the point. Liked the guy getting high with his friends and listening to Black Sabbath. Liked the Hitler Christ bit. Liked the Zizek parody.

[Gemma Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read all three of this guy's novels and this was the best, I think. Dark as hell but amusing at times. Felt like there were references to things I didn't know about but I could still sort of get what was being referenced, if that makes any sense.

[Elizabeth Dorrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting structure for a novel. Can't think of anything quite like it. Funny in place, unpleasant in places, I liked it without ever falling in love with it.

[Trudy Summers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird. Kind of unsettling. Good but his other books are better.

[Sheldon Moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was going to give this four stars but screw it, five stars. A tour de force. More Kafkaesque in a strange way that the actual Kafka pastiche this guy tried to pull off, so earns the extra star.

[J Szechin-Mercer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books, like Moby Dick or something, that will be loved in 100 years when everyone finally gets it. Until then, it's still pretty good stuff.

[Samantha Reins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book with a peculiar structure which I nontheless enjoyed. Once you get past the format, the story takes you away.