SCHRADER’S CHORD by Scott Leeds

Book Review

Matt Johns

Charlie Remick is known by his colleagues as ‘the man with the golden ear’. An A&R scout for a record company, he’s renowned for finding acts that will be a commercial success. When he finds out about his estranged father’s death, he returns home to two gifts left to him by his father – the keys to his record store and a black case containing four mysterious records that it is alleged can open a gateway to the afterlife. Recorded by a mysterious composer (the titular Schrader), there are many legends about these, and it seems that his father travelled the world to locate them without his children ever knowing.

When he, his sister and two friends play the four records, they very quickly find that this is no fairy tale. They have no choice but to team up with his resurrected father to work out how to close the gateway they inadvertently opened.

The author clearly knows and loves his music – sharing (through Charlie, his father and his record store employees) lots of facts about classical music, musicians and even musical composition. As well as his obvious love of music, he also has a definite talent for writing – this book is a real page-turner, keeping the reader engaged throughout and wanting to keep going to find out what happens next. I almost missed my tube stop on the way to work while reading this, as I was so engrossed in it! Leeds does a fantastic job of building tension and layering the story towards the inevitable conclusion. He injects not just tension, buckets of gore and unpleasant deaths but also pathos and humour throughout. As a reader, I really became invested in Charlie’s story, wanting to read more and more to find out what happens at the conclusion. I could come up with a music-related pun here, but I will spare you that – there are enough within the review snippets in the first couple of pages of the book, and they’re probably better than I could come up with!

I sat for a while and tried to think of a comparable author for this review and struggled – there are times when you feel that perhaps it’s akin to a Stephen King work or maybe Dean Koontz, but that would be an unfair comparison. It’s a Scott Leeds novel and deserves to stand on its own. As a debut novel, it sets a definite tone and expectation, and I am keen to see what Scott Leeds does next – if it’s half as good as this page-turner, then it’ll be a cracker.