All The World's A Stage - Guy Hale

 

                                       BLURB

In the final installment of The Comeback Trail trilogy, Jimmy Wayne has set off on his major tour of Europe, selling out the likes of the Royal Albert Hall and Zenith, Paris. While Jimmy's fame is reaching dizzying heights, behind-the-scenes crime bosses, Jack Lantern and George Digbeth, are scheming ways to bring him crashing back down to earth. But it's not just these two he should be worried about. Jimmy's adventures in Europe have drawn the attention of crime families across London, Paris, southern Italy and Madrid and everyone is battling for a piece of the action. From recovering valuable stolen artwork to his mother's romantic escapades, will Jimmy survive the mayhem of this whirlwind tour or will the dubious, murderous circumstances to which he owes all his success, be exposed, for once and for all...?

                                  MY THOUGHTS

So, here we come, as Boys To Men once sang "At the end of the road". All The World's A Stage is the final book in Guy Hale's The Comeback Trail (but don't worry, I've heard there's a new series to come).

Jimmy Wayne's success is continuing it's upward spiral and now he's on a tour of Europe. Yup, Jimmy's really hit the big time now. The problem's still the same though - Jimmy only gets the killer tunes by, well, killing. He's a serial killer you can't help but like though. He found out by accidentally killing his girlfriend Wendy (remember her? Well she's still by Jimmy's side, giving him advice and encouragement from beyond the grave) and waking up with a cracking tune ready written while he slept. On finding out how this worked Jimmy decided he couldn't let this opportunity go to waste so got a whole album's worth of new material by committing serial murder. He could justify this though by only murdering scumbags. So far it's been working out ok (well, there's been scrapes but that's what you would expect.)

But now things are starting to catch up with him. Everyone wants a piece of the action. Now he's out in Europe and the European gangland families are starting to hear his name.

As always with this series there is quite a lot going on in 'Stage'. As well as all the gangster stuff there's the main thing we're here for - the music, the gigs. The dialogue is spot on, especially when Wendy is on the scene. I really think she is one of the best supporting characters of recent time. As it is the last book in the series it's kinda obvious the stakes are going to be raised. Will Jimmy make it to the end in one piece? Will his murderous exploits catch up with him? I'm not going to spoil the fun for you, you'll have to read the story yourself (and you can thank me later, it's a cracking read).

I wasn't sure how I would like The Comeback Trail when I first agreed to review book 1, Killing Me Softly, but I'm glad I gave it a shot. It's turned out to be one of my favourite series. Crime, Music, Mobsters, Murder and Laughs - all you could possibly want all in one three book bundle. Perfection 5/5*

Thanks to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for inviting me onto this blogtour and to White Fox Publishing for providing the review copy (all views and comments are my own). 

Please have a read of the other posts by my fellow bloggers (below) if you get the chance.