Rolly Waters is a middle-aged guitar player and private detective. After playing a gig with his band, he meets Macy Starr, a tattooed, rough around the edges, golden-eyed DJ. Macy is half Rolly’s age, but that doesn’t stop their attraction or Rolly’s willingness to take her on as a client. Macy’s inquisition into the origin of a primitive guitar instrument with a picture attached leads Rolly into the off-the-grid world of Slab City. Dodging tasers, unstable locals, and the strange world of alien believers, leads Rolly to clues helping him solve the mystery of his client’s identity and the origin of the Diddley Bow guitar she received as a gift. Oddly enough, those clues also link Rolly to a twenty-year-old case about a cult mass suicide. The question is, will the answers be enough to satisfy Macy, or will their quest for answers lead to more murders and a dangerous ending?

“The look on Parnell’s face turned to pure loathing, as if he remembered every day he’d spent in prison, every hour he’d spent planning his triumphal moment”

Corey Lynn Fayman’s Desert City Diva is a humorously rich mystery romance. Rolly and Macy make an unlikely pair but their differences are as farcical as the storyline itself. It goes to show that age is only a number and differences in interest can’t prevent sexual attraction. The plot felt a bit farfetched, but the storyline was fitfully quirky and added to the entertainment factor. Fayman’s remarkably engrossing writing style clearly captures the scenes ambiance and the byplay that the characters had with each other. I laughed often and was left surprisingly clueless as to the final outcome until the very end! Desert City Diva was exceedingly well written and engrossingly entertaining.

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