Really decent story from Max Tomlinson.
Dead girl found in musicians room.
Musician disapears abroad.
Fast forward and musicians daught is kidnapped.
Cracking mystery which kept me guessing most of the way.
Will readily read anything else from this author

I probably should have read the first book to this series, but when I read the blurb I had to request it.

I love that his book takes us back in time to the '60s and '70s where it talks about clothing and all that, I wish I was born in that area kind of. LOL I love how Colleen is trying to get her job done, without doing anything illegal and making sure that innocent people don't get hurt along the way.

Late 70’s San Francisco. Two disconnected events from the late 60’s: 1. Colleen Hayes discovers that her husband has been abusing their daughter. In a fit a rage, Collen drives a shiv into his neck, and she gets 10y courtesy of the State of Colorado. Pamela, the daughter, eventually finds her way to a commune in rural northern California. 2. Steve Cook was a Brit rock singer on the way up. The Lost Chords' first album just knocked The Stones off the top spot. The boys are up and coming rock gods. All the booze and birds they can handle. Cook wakes up one morning after a mega concert with a dead minor in his bed. He’s barely out of his teens and runs off leaving his band mates behind without a word. Bye Bye rock god. Ends up in Brazil. Meets Lynda. A wannabe music producer. Convinces him to come to SF so she can resurrect his career. They marry. Have a daughter, Melinda, now 11. Steve and Lynda are divorced.

Colleen has been out on parole and lives in San Francisco. Being a convicted felon kind of limits one’s career options. She’s worked security and now is working as an unlicensed PI. Gets a call about a kidnapped girl. Told to meet the dad at a bar where the dad works with some band and discovers . . . son of a bitch . . . the lead singer, the dad, her client, is THE Steve Cook, whom she had a crush on when The Lost Chords were an item.

He’s renovating a row house. When she interviews him about Melanie, Lynda comes in unannounced and uninvited. Real piece of work is she. There’s a ransom demand and instructions for the delivery. Colleen will make the trade per the kidnapper’s instructions. The swap goes bad. The bag man ends up under a bus, the money gone in a handoff, and no Melanie. Almost as bad, Steve got the money from a loan shark with a short fuse.

As Colleen and Steve go back over what happened, Colleen starts to think that the kidnap was a sham. The main target is not money, but Steve’s catalogue of songs he wrote for The Lost Chords. Hollywood wants one in particular for a movie. The rights fees for that song and the catalogue could bring in millions. Colleen starts tracking Lynda and eventually finds Melanie safe down by the coast, placated with a new horse. She shows photos to Steve and, for the most part, the case is done.

Problem is, I’m only 50% through the book. Lots more to come.

Like a 2nd kidnapping of Melanie . . . Lynda’s dad (a film and music producer) . . . a titled music promoter in London . . . a dead body . . . his old band mates . . . more ransom demands (for real this time) . . . Cook being arrested . . . a shootout in the Mojave . . . more dead bodies.

Tie Die is a welcome glimpse back to the shift from the mod to the disco culture of that era, an era I lived through. It’s the 2nd in a planned Colleen Hayes series. Most ‘noir’ mysteries have a hard boiled (male) detective and a femme fatale. Those roles are reversed with Colleen and Cook. Tomlinson presents Colleen as a seriously flawed (and somewhat star-struck) heroine who sees this case as a parallel to her own relationship (or lack thereof) with her own daughter. Maybe solving one will help repair the other? Guessing that’s that’ll be his next book. Tie Dye is a very good noir mystery whose pace really picks up in the 2nd half of the book. I think I may just try to find the first (Vanishing in the Heights) so I have the full backstory prior to what I suspect will be the all out hunt for her daughter.

The book is published by Oceanview. The only publisher I’ve ever pointed out in the past is Emily Bestler Books. I’ve had very good luck with Oceanview so it’s time I gave them some props, too.

I'm a huge music fan and grew up when music was at it's innovative peak in the late 60's and early 70's. Of course I had tie die shirts. The concept and storyline were appealing to me so I decided to give this book a whirl
Overall, I would have to say that I liked this book but found it lacking in parts. I was not a big fan of the main carachter. Tomlinson is a good writer so I will certainly read his next effoort but not necessarily in this series.
3.5 STARS Back in London’s swinging ’60s, Steve Cook was teen idol number one. But that changed when a 16-year-old fan was found dead in his hotel room bed. Steve’s career came to a crashing halt after he was dumped by his record company and arrested. Now, in 1978 San Francisco, Steve works construction, still dreaming of a comeback.Until his 11-year-old daughter is kidnapped. Steve turns to one person for help: Colleen Hayes. She was quite a fan herself, back in the day. And she knows what it’s like to be on the wrong side of the law and live in judgment for the rest of your life.

The second Colleen Hayes mystery has Colleen trying to solve the kidnapping of a former rock star's eleven-year-old daughter. She's still working on getting her PI license which isn't easy for an ex-con who is still on parole when she gets a call from Steve Cook. Steve was the lead singer and songwriter for The Lost Chords.

Colleen was once a fan of Steve and The Lost Chords but complications in her own life kept her from hearing the story when they dropped off the charts. She is surprised to find Steve in San Francisco, doing construction, and fighting with his ex. She is immediately sympathetic when she learns that his daughter has been kidnapped. After all, she is struggling to rebuild her relationship with her own daughter who has become a Moonie.

It doesn't take long for Colleen to realize that something strange is going on. The plot twists back to those days when The Lost Chords had their troubles. The only thing Steve has of any particular value is his music catalog but it has been tied up in lawsuits with the band's former agent for years. But now, someone wants the right to one of those songs and there are people who will do anything to get those rights.

I liked the story. I really liked the 1960s San Francisco setting with all the fashions, cars, and music I remember. I also really like Colleen who has a soft spot for kids in trouble and a firm sense of justice.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.
This is the second of the series book by author Max Tomlinson and can be read as a standalone one. Having said that this is an absolutely delight of a book, fast paced, just enought of plot twists, good background story building and relatable characters. One of the books which you'd like to close on a single sitting as you too get caught up with the plot and are interested to see this till the end.
Recommended read.

We are back in time, to the 1960s-1970s - a perfect picture of that world as it were. The songs, the cars, the burnt-orange kitchens, 501 Levis, thirty cents a gallon gas - nostalgia for my generation, and a worthy lesson for the youngsters. I received a free electronic ARC of this historical novel - boy, that hurts my self-image! - from Netgalley, Max Tomlinson, and Oceanview Publishing. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. Max Tomlinson writes a tight, compelling story with a fast pace and sympathetic characters. This is the second in a series but completely stand-alone.

Stevie Cook is the 18-year-old songwriter and lead singer in a British boy band, the Lost Chords, in 1966. They have paid their dues and finally - finally! have a hit on their hands and all the bonus attention that goes with that. An Album deal and booze and screaming girls and drugs and maybe even free sex. This is their first taste of the big-time, a show at the Hammersmith Odeon Theatre in London, and a screaming sell-out crowd that makes all the lean meals and disappointed mamas seem minor. But that adage,' Easy Come, Easy Go' falls too true for the boys. This is also their last show. Anywhere. Stevie held them together, and now he is running from the law In several countries.

In 1978, in San Francisco, we encounter Steve again, singing lead in a band with no name at The Pitt, a little neighborhood bar in Mission. He still has it, whatever 'it' is, but chooses to stay out of the limelight, not content by any means but able to handle his life in pieces. Long after a very contentious divorce, he is the non-custodial father of Melanie, a spoiled, 11-year-old horse-crazy daughter, and Steve has all he can do just to get through the days. Ex-wife Lynda is a real piece of work and makes his relationship with Melanie difficult. And then Melanie is kidnapped.

Colleen, with the help of retired Homicide Officer Moran, is a fairly new private investigator, recently released after a 9-year plus stretch in prison for killing her husband. On probation, she is having difficulty obtaining a proper PI license, and cannot carry a gun. Steve can almost afford to hire her to help him find his daughter. Colleen would help for nothing - her own teenaged daughter Pam is a voluntary prisoner with a cult in Northern California and all Colleen can do is wait for her to see the light. Collie actually recognizes Steve but missed the turmoil that killed his career in England. One of the songs on side B of the Lost Chord's only album was a favorite of hers when she was a young wife and mother. And she has time on her hands - she and her clapped-out Torino are available to help him find and pay the $20,000 ransom to free Melanie. His ex-wife's father would loan him the money - Mellie IS his granddaughter - but only if Steve signs over the Lost Chords catalog of copy-written songs. Not as collateral, but as a sale. And the 20 k would be repaid, with interest. The copy-writes have been in contention for about ten years so he has yet to make a cent off of them, but they are all Steve has to show for his life. He finds the money with a gangster but needs someone to deliver it while he retrieves his daughter. Once they figure out where she is, of course. Colleen has a difficult time getting him to understand that now before the money changes hands is the only time he will have any leverage and he must demand proof of life and work out transfer details before he hands over his grey athletic bag of cash. And something about the whole situation strikes Collie as wonky. She has trouble believing how naive Steve is but does her best to steer him in a direction that will keep his daughter safe while she tries to track down the protagonists and suss out Melanie's location. But it would all be a lot easier if Steve weren't so appealing. And if she could count on her Torino to start every time she needs it to... Even at just 30 cents per gallon -and Ethel is double that - gas is expensive if you have to leave that big V-8 running all the time or walk back to town from Olema or Point Reyes or even Sheep's Hole...

Loved this follow up with 70s detective Colleen Hayes. Here, she takes on an ex British rock n roller from the 60s when his daughter is kidnapped. Love the atmosphere and sharp writing from Max Tomlinson. He really knows how to set the mood, plus writes a fast-paced story with just enough twists to keep you on the edge of your seat. Looking forward to my next encounter with this detective.

Tie Die is a PI yarn set in San Francisco in the 70s. PI Collette is commissioned to find and recover the daughter of a now down on his luck 60s super star. But of course, all is not as it seems.

Max Tomlinson does a good job capturing the feel of the era and brings the reader believable root-able (and boo-able) characters. Tie Die is a good fun read.

Steve was a teenage rocker on the brink of a stellar career back in the sixties but his life crashed when a teenage girl was found dead in his hotel room and he fled abroad. A decade or son on he lives in California and works as a builder while dreaming of a come-back.. Cal is an unlicensed P.I., not long out of prison who Steve contacts when his daughter is kidnapped. The attempted pay off goes wrong and the case looks more and more fishy, with hints that may reach back to the past. There's plenty of action, violence and suspense to keep the story moving along.

3.5 stars
Steve Cook was on his way to fame, fortune, and a lifestyle he couldn't even imagine as lead singer and composer of his group, However the dream is soon to end when a naked sixteen year old was found dead in his bed. This occurrence happened in the sixties and Steve fled, finding himself in the seventies in California, working in construction and still dreaming of the day he will achieve his heart's desire. Then the horrible happens and his daughter is abducted and a ransom is demanded.

To the rescue comes Colleen Hayes, no neophyte when it comes to the dark side of human nature, herself having served time for the murder of her husband. Colleen is smart, tenacious and is hot on the trail of both the kidnappers and the reason behind the abduction.

Things move along and there is a huge deception put forth by Steve's ex wife and her father. Then things take a very sinister turn and Colleen must once again figure out the devious plan and path of the kidnapper, all with being attracted to Steve.

This was a fine story, a bit convoluted at times, but a quick and easy read.
Thank you to Max Tomlinson, Oceanview Publishing, and Net Galley for a copy of this book

I was excited to read this book after a trip to San Francisco several years ago, I love learning more about the area - even in a fictional mystery. I had previously read the first book in this series, Vanishing in the Haight. This second book in the series. I loved the time of mystery solving without all the technology that is present today. The fast-paced writing, characters, and humor made this a quick read. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Once upon a time Steve Cook had it all before him...hit singles and rock stardom . Then one morning he woke up In the U.K. with an underage girl in his bed, dead. Fleeing to the U.S., he stayed out of jail but the elusive career disappeared. Flash forward to 1978 and his 11-year old daughter, Melanie, has gone missing, reportedly kidnapped He reaches out to Colleen Hayes, a badass P.I. For help. Her search for his daughter leads her into the morass of record corruption and back to that fateful night. Interesting time period and protagonist and an enjoyable way to spend a few hours.

I really liked the first title in Max Tomlinson’s Colleen Hayes series so I was happy to receive an ARC of the second title in the series, Tie Die, to read in exchange for my honest review. And, I really liked this book too. I think it’s better than the first one.

First off, the writing in Tie Die is just as crisp and evocative of a by-gone era as it was in Vanishing in the Haight. That was a nice start. It was fun to see Colleen get to move around a bit more than in the first book, including more of California and a trip to London. On a side note, I wish there had been a bit more description of the trip to London itself, just for atmosphere, especially since I made my first trip to London myself around that time. But that wouldn’t have added anything to the story, I suspect. And the descriptions of London of that era definitely brought back memories for me that I really enjoyed.

Then there’s the kidnapping - or is it a kidnapping? Colleen has to figure out what’s going on and why, while hoping the whole time that the young girl who’s missing is okay. I don’t want to say too much about that, to avoid being spoiler-ish, but suffice it to say that it’s not as straightforward as it seems at first.

I think the thing I liked most about this book as compared to the first in the series though, is that it was a little bit more hopeful. It’s not that all of Colleen’s personal problems are fixed, and the finish isn’t a 100 percent happy ending for her client. After all, in a noir-ish book/series, a happy ending is just not going to happen. But still I came away with a feeling that things are looking up just a little more for Colleen, and that felt right.

I had a lot of trouble figuring out how many stars to give this book. I’m on record in my review of the first book as saying I would have given it 4 ½ stars if I could. On the other hand, I try to fight “star-flation” a little bit, so I give most books 4 stars, and reserve 5 stars for a very few absolute favorite books that I am going to read and re-read again and again. But, since I said the first one deserved 4 ½ stars, and since I like this one better, I think I’m going to have to break in favor of giving this one 5 stars. And I hope Tomlinson writes another in this series!

Great book, but in places it takes a nose dive. The author does an amazing job of bringing the characters alive. But half trough it’s lost my interest and I found myself wishing it would end.

This is my first novel to read by Max Tomlinson, and I am already looking to pick up more! The story is well rounded, enthralling, and so very well articulated on the page! The characters all came to life and I felt each and every emotion while reading! I could not put this down!

Tie Die takes readers into the past, with a story about the often corrupt world of rock 'n roll in the late '60s and "current day" in the late '70s.

Steve Cook was the teen-aged lead singer of a hot British band living the dream until his life fell apart. Drunk, with no memory of how he even got to bed after the concert, he wakes one day to find an under-age girl dead in his bed. He's arrested, dropped by his record label and soon fades from the public eye.

Fast forward to San Francisco in 1978. Steve is working construction and sometimes singing with a no-name band in a local bar. When his 11 year-old daughter, Melanie, is kidnapped he calls Colleen Hayes, a private investigator who started her own firm Hayes Confidential, for help. It doesn't take long for Colleen to determine that something about the kidnapping doesn't ring true.

Colleen is a strong female lead and I enjoyed her character. Tough and confident, she is skilled at uncovering leads and is not afraid to follow up on them. I look forward to reading more about her and the cases she is given to solve.

The book held my interest about 65% of the way through. At that point, even though Colleen was working her game well, the whole thing just started to drag for me and I found myself looking forward to it being over. I give it 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Oceanview Publishers for allowing me to read a copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions expressed here are my own.

There may be a worse combination than sudden fame and all the trappings of mega-success for a group of young lads, but you’ll have to work to come up with one. Or, you can just dive headfirst into Tie Die, Max Tomlinson’s delicious new thriller, to see just how bad “worse” could be…
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Stevie Cook was the lead singer of an up-and-coming band—The Lost Chords—living the high life with his bandmates and rubbing elbows with the likes of the Stones in London. All of eighteen years old, he’d been swept from a normal life, to a crazy whirlwind of swinging 1960s excess, with all the booze, drugs, fancy clothes and gear, and female companionship he could lay his hands on.

Until one morning, that is, when he woke up, hung-over after a big show, with a naked young girl stone-cold dead in the bed next to him… and everything changed, again. Only this time, for the so-much-worse.

Stevie fled Great Britain, fearing arrest, and vanished, and The Lost Chords disbanded, with only one album under their collective low-slung belts.

Cut to more than a decade later, 1978 San Francisco. A new-to-the-job private investigator, one Colleen Haynes, gets a call from a prospective client, whose daughter has been kidnapped. After accepting the usual “don’t-tell-the-police-or-else” instructions, she agrees to meet, to see if she can be of help.

Imagine her surprise when the father turns out to be none other than Steve Cook—the lead singer of a long-ago band (which mysteriously disbanded), whose music she briefly listened to during a rough patch in her long-ago marriage—all grown up.

Colleen still feels strongly that the police should be involved, but both her younger self and her mid-30s, seen-it-all self feel compelled to help Steve, who turns out to be a pretty nice, regular (albeit waaaay down-on-his-luck) guy. And Colleen, well… she has a pretty dark secret of her own, in the past, that she’s none-too-anxious to share with her new client, either.

After the first attempt at delivering the ransom money gets botched big-time, though, Colleen and Steve gradually come to realize it may not be possible for either of them to keep their secrets hidden from each other… because those very secrets could make the difference between a father ever seeing his eleven-year-old daughter again… or not.
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Tomlinson is a new author to me—and Colleen Hayes, a new character (although it turns out this is actually her second appearance, after his earlier Vanishing in the Haight, which I’ll definitely be going back to read, soon)—and, it turns out, a real find. I couldn’t put Tie Die down; it was that good.

Full of delightful bits of color, I ate up Tomlinson’s depiction of both the rock scene in Swinging ‘60s London (before I was born, so really fun to read about), as well as 1978 San Francisco (and Los Angeles, which was an extra highlight for me). From the soundtrack he provides—well worth pausing one’s reading and YouTubing, at each mention—to the vivid descriptions of places, hairstyles, clothing, and cars (seriously, I have an ex who would be thrilled that Colleen drives a Torino), Tomlinson puts you in the moment and anchors you there… and it’s these touches that really take Tie Die to another level for me.

Too often, stories set in the not-that-distant past read as more wistfully-nostalgic, than compelling, entertaining, and fresh; Tie Die definitely falls under the latter, and is not to be missed.
~GlamKitty

A Riveting Trip down Memory Lane

Colleen Hayes is the sole proprietor of a PI agency in San Francisco. The story is set in the late 70s with flashbacks to the music scene in London in the 1960s. Steven Cooke, who had been a rising music star in 60s London, fled London after a dead fan was found in his hotel room after a performance one might. He ended up in South America and subsequently ended up in San Francisco, doing singing gigs around town.

When the story opens Steve contacts Colleen Hayes because his daughter has been abducted. After meeting him she agrees to take on the case. A ransom demand has been made. Colleen, having spent several years in prison, is suspicious and and probes into the backstory of Steve and his ex-wife who is the daughter of a music producer. A ransom drop is arranged, supposedly the daughter in exchange for the money. Against her instincts Colleen decides to handle the drop which goes off the rails as the money is snatched from her but the daughter is not there.

A trip to London and interviews with some of Steve's band members reveal that he was set up to take the fall for the dead fan in his room. Colleen discovers a connection between Steve's former manager and and the music industry in California. Eventually Colleen unravels that the abduction is a scam. This leads her on a path to rescue the "kidnapped" daughter.

This was my first encounter with Max Tomlinson and Colleen Hayes. I am cueing up the first book to learn more about Colleen's background. A very promising new PI series. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this novel which I thoroughly enjoyed.

This was a great romp! Beginning in the 60's rock-n-roll singer Steve has plenty of fans and a voice of gold. But when a young groupie ends up dead in his bed, he flees believing his life is over. Fast forward to 1968 and his ex-wife tells him their young daughter Melanie has been kidnapped and he must pay $20,000 to get her back so he hires Colleen an investigator he finds. But little does he know that she's an ex-con and a take-no-prisoners kind of sleuth who will stop at nothing to help him, recover Melanie, and find out the truth as things go awry. Of course things get dicey and there are many puzzles to solve but Colleen is hell-bent on getting to the bottom of this scandal. I eagerly await the next book in this series!