Remix by Lexi Revellian

Title: Remix
Author: Lexi Revellian
ISBN: 978-0956642202
Publisher: Hoxton Press
First Published: August 2010
No. of Pages: 278

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis (Amazon):
Caz Tallis restores rocking horses in her London workshop. When shabby but charismatic Joe and his dog turn up on her roof terrace, she is reluctantly drawn into investigating a rock star’s murder from three years before – an unsolved case the police have closed. Somebody is prepared to kill to prevent it being reopened – and is Caz’s judgment clouding as she falls in love?

Review:
It’s not often that I get so firmly grabbed by a book right from the very beginning, but that’s exactly what happened when I picked up Remix. Of course, it helps that the lightness of style makes it absurdly easy to read and before you know it you’re half way through and refusing to put it down!

The characters are all great, especially Caz Tallis, who feels particularly real and I found myself believing in the ex-teacher who restores and makes rocking horses for a living. There’s a little bit of stereotyping with Ric, but it works because of the kind of person he is, what he goes through, and how he comes out the other side.

The use of real locations helps ground the whole plot in reality and the lines between their fact and the characters’ fiction is so successfully blurred that the reader is carried along with Caz on a fun and exciting adventure. The mystery also keeps you guessing right up to the tipping point, which is, in y experience, unusual for a lighthearted mystery of this kind which, on occasion, verges on the cosy before sharpening its edges.

This is Revellian’s third novel, but her first non-fantasy, and I’m pleased to see from her website that there’s a sequel coming (Rewind), and I will definitely want to get my hands on it!

Reviewed by Kell Smurthwaite