Jo Bannister, Breaking Faith

Breaking Faith

Jo Bannister

St. Martin's, Aug 2005, $24.95

ISBN: 0312343019

In Dimmock, England, Brodie Farrell, who runs the business Looking for Something? explains to her friend nerdy Daniel Hood what demon rock is. Her current client, demon rock star Jared Fry, lead singer of the Souls for Satan, is proving impossible to satisfy as even realtors failed to come up with the right home for him, but for 2.5 million pounds she will find Dracula a blood bank. Thankfully Jared's manager Eric Chandos is working with Brodie although they must adhere to the rock star's impossible mega list.

They find the perfect place, a rundown former inn changed into flats, The Diligence although Jared whines that he needs a pool. A builder begins digging up the ground only to find a Jane Doe who has been buried for several years. The locals assume that the corpse is either runaway Sasha Wade or Michelle Rollins who allegedly left town with a truck driver. Brodie's lover, Detective Superintendent Jack Deacon investigates while she goes undercover with Eric.

This is an intriguing English police procedural in which the interaction of the cast to include the almost decade old deceased is more interesting than the investigation. The story line follows Brodie who is attracted to Eric though she is seeing Jack while her best friend Daniel wants to keep her safe though she probably could take him. Throw in eccentric suspects on top of zany outsiders and the audience will have a fun time while pondering who at the climax will end up in bed with Brodie rather than wondering who the killer is.

Harriet Klausner