Cinnamon Girl

Lyft driver and PI Adam Zantz plumbs the depths of L.A.’s mid-1980s music scene in Weizmann’s enjoyable if erratic sequel to The Last Songbird. Adam’s childhood piano teacher, who is dying, enlists the part-time sleuth to track down a man he claims can clear the name of his son, Emil, who was killed in prison while locked up for the murder of drug dealer Reynaldo Druazo a decade earlier. To start, Adam turns to the family of Emil’s former girlfriend, Cinnamon Persky, who died of an apparent overdose shortly after Emil was killed. While visiting Cinnamon’s mother, Adam stumbles on the test pressing of an unreleased 1980 LP from a garage band called the Daily Telegraph, whose members included Emil and Reynaldo. Following that lead, he discusses the band with a burnt-out L.A. music historian, who sheds light on their competitive, druggy, and crime-riddled milieu. Could Emil, Cinnamon, and Reynaldo all have fallen victim to a musical rivalry gone wrong? Fans of the previous novel will enjoy spending more time with Weizmann’s shaggy detective-in-training, even as the plotting stumbles in the home stretch. This breezy neo-noir whizzes by like a familiar old song. Agent: Janet Oshiro, Robbins Office. (May)