Girl Can't Help It by Max Allan Collins

A rock band’s reunion is looking more like a farewell tour in a captivating mystery by New York Times bestselling and award-winning crime master Max Allan Collins.

No sooner do Hot Rod and the Pistons reunite for their induction into the Iowa Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, than two band members take a final bow. Both alleged suicides. A tragic way to go out. A bum way for one-hit wonders to be remembered. But it’s Labor Day weekend. The show must go on.

With replacements at the ready, the Pistons are back on home turf to headline the first ever Rock and Country Music Fest. Police Chief Krista Larson and her father, Keith, are there listening. And watching. Because they suspect there may be more to the band members’ untimely deaths than anyone else can see.

As Krista and Keith navigate the investigation, a dark picture of the band’s rocky history begins to take center stage. As betrayal, revenge, and blackmail start playing out in the present, the father-daughter team fear that this encore may be the band’s finale.

Book 2
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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Ruthie – ☆☆☆
This is the second book in the series, but my first, and I did not feel that I had gaps in my understanding of the locale or the lead protagonists.

A fairly low danger murder mystery based around a local band's revival concert which I thought worked pretty well, and whilst the original rockers were now pretty sedentary, it was clear that their pasts were a little less straitlaced. I liked the concept of looking back and reflecting on how the decisions they took affected each of them. We soon know that someone else is also feeling the impact of the time she spent with the band.

Krista and her father, Keith, are quite fun, although why I needed to know what they (and everyone else) was wearing all the time did confuse me. At the beginning, being a committed murder mystery reader, I was keeping note, in case there was a twist based on clothing, but it certainly didn't seem to be what I needed to remember at all. I enjoyed their romance problems due to them sharing a house, although it certainly wasn't the focus of the book.

I enjoyed the read, and it would be perfect for a beach read, when you don't want to think too hard and yet have a satisfying mystery with some clever if nasty twists.

After earning the Eye, the PWA’s Lifetime Achievement award in 2006, Max Allan Collins was named a Grand Master in 2017 by the Mystery Writers of America. He’s earned an unprecedented twenty-three Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Award nominations, winning two for his Nathan Heller novels. Those novels also earned Collins the PWA’s Hammer award for making a major contribution to the private-eye genre. His other books include the New York Times bestseller Saving Private Ryan, the USA Today bestselling CSI series, and Girl Most Likely in the Krista Larson series.

His graphic novel Road to Perdition is the basis of the Academy Award–winning Tom Hanks film, and is followed by two acclaimed prose sequels and several more graphic novels in the same series. His comics credits include Dick Tracy, Wild Dog, Batman, and Ms. Tree.

Collins is also a screenwriter, playwright, and a leading indie filmmaker in his native Iowa, where he lives with his wife, writer Barbara Collins. As “Barbara Allan,” they have collaborated on fourteen novels.

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Girl Can't Help It (Krista Larson #2) by Max Allan Collins to read and review.