Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Masked Band: A D. I. Jim Garibaldi Novel by Bernard O'Keeffe

  

The Masked Band (Muswell, 2025) is the fourth book with Detective Inspector Jim Garibaldi, who lives and works in Barnes, a pleasant London suburb on the Thames. It’s an engaging read with a novel premise. Garibaldi is well read and is given to quoting bits of literature during serious team discussions, throwing his colleagues off and irritating his boss, with whom he has exchanged confidences of a personal nature in the past. Garibaldi’s parents were killed in a car accident and he has never learned to drive. He may be the only contemporary detective on a bicycle I have encountered. (I think Father Brown rode a bicycle.)

The Okay Boomers is a group of celebrities from various parts of the media world who wear masks of David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Debbie Harry, Bob Dylan, and Mick Jagger and play occasional gigs in the local pub. They gather at one member’s house after a successful performance and the next morning a young man is found dead in the garden wearing one of the masks. No identification on the victim and band members all deny knowing him. The remaining masks are missing.

The more the police press the members of the band to find a link between the dead man and the group, the more the individuals begin to crack. On the surface they are all congenial; behind closed doors they don’t much like each other and don’t hesitate to throw each other under the proverbial bus. One member is especially venomous, he has stabbed each of the others in the back; they all heard about it and haven’t forgotten. To see him on the law enforcement hot seat doesn’t bother them at all.

The killer didn’t exactly come out of the blue but it was certainly an unexpected if reasonable resolution.

O’Keeffe works some sly digs about the concept of celebrity into the story and how overrated some individual media stars are. No need to read the earlier books in this police procedural for this particular storyline to make sense. Overall, a satisfying read!

This book is only available in paperback, unfortunately. I had to order it from Waterstone’s in England earlier in the year when it first came to my attention. While I see it is listed on Amazon now, the seller that is offering it is in England so expect slower than usual shipping. A potentially good use for that Amazon gift card you might find in your stocking.

·         Publisher: ‎Muswell Press

·         Publication date: ‎February 20, 2025

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎368 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1738452883

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1738452880

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link:  https://amzn.to/4a0x1qv

  

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.