Greetings, book people. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and found some time to read. I did a bit of armchair travel to Ireland over the weekend. I don’t hyperfocus on the setting when I’m reading, but it does play a large part in providing a little something extra to the story. It doesn’t seem to matter if the setting is a realistic or fictional location, the descriptions of the area help me picture everything in my mind. Please help me welcome Corey Fayman as our guest today and he’ll be discussing the important role his hometown plays in his Rolly Waters mystery series, including the latest release Gillespie Field Groove. Thank you, Mr. Hayman, for taking the time to join us and sharing your thoughts on your hometown. The blog is now all yours.
Hometown San Diego
Corey Lynn Fayman
From Sherlock Holmes’ London to Harry Bosch’s Los Angeles, fictional detectives have been closely identified with the city they work in. When I started writing the Rolly Waters mystery series, I decided right away that I wanted to set the books in San Diego. While crime authors such as Don Winslow, T. Jeff Parker, and Alan Russell have located some of their novels in San Diego, there wasn’t a regular series that featured the area. The writing team of Robert Wade and Bill Miller wrote a series of hardboiled San Diego novels in the 1940s and 1950s and a 1970s TV detective series called Harry O was filmed in San Diego, but I wanted to write something more contemporary. It’s my town, after all.
When I was growing up, there were three things San Diego was known for—its beaches, the U.S. Navy, and our zoo. While these are still notable parts of the city’s personality and economy, the area has grown more diverse, both culturally and economically. The population has tripled since I was born. It all adds up to a richer and more complex backdrop for a detective novel. I wanted to capture aspects of San Diego that tourists rarely experience, what it’s like to live here.
There’s the sunshine and mild weather of course, but early summer brings weeks of cool fog on the coast. In late summer and fall the dry Santa Ana winds sweep in, giving rise to destructive wildfires. Rain is scarce, but when it arrives the mostly dormant San Diego River floods Mission Valley, cutting off roads, hotels, and shopping centers.
But it’s the little things I really like to write about. A worn-out Blues club downtown called Patrick’s Pub that has survived the Gaslamp District’s transition from seedy sailor hangout to conventioneer’s playground. Or the La Posta taco stand in Hillcrest where I had my first carne asada burrito—a dingy little place, not unlike the hundreds, if not thousands, of other great taco shops in San Diego. Both Patrick’s and La Posta are regular hangouts for my guitar-playing detective Rolly Waters (although he’s currently trying to cut back on his burrito consumption).
With each book, I get a chance to feature new and offbeat places in San Diego County. Black’s Beach Shuffle focused on the high-tech corridors and affluent beach towns of North County. Border Field Blues addressed the complicated past and present of Border Field Park, a neglected state park just across the border from the Tijuana Bull Ring. Desert City Diva takes the reader to our eastern mountains where a funky roadside attraction, Desert Tower, provides views of the Borrego desert and a menagerie of animals carved into the rocks. Ballast Point Breakdown gets close to home with San Diego Bay and the Navy’s Marine Mammal program as the center of action. And in my latest effort, Gillespie Field Groove, events take place in and around a small municipal airport in El Cajon.
Petco Park, Driscoll Wharf, Mitch’s Seafood, Winston’s nightclub, Imperial Beach, the Star of India, Allied Gardens, Ballast Point, Rolando, the Casbah, Lake Wohlford, Market Street, the Belly Up Tavern. The names are real and as evocative as any I could make up. All part of my books. And my hometown. ♦
Gillespie Field Groove
by Corey Fayman
May 8 – June 2, 2023 Virtual Book Tour
Synopsis:
An obscure rock’n’roll roadie dies under mysterious circumstances. A prized Jimi Hendrix guitar has gone missing. Can Rolly Waters save his new client from the ruthless collectors looking for it?
When nurse and fledgling pilot Lucinda Rhodes hires guitar-playing private detective Rolly Waters to track down a Stratocaster guitar owned by her deceased father, Rolly is thrilled to take on her case, especially when he learns the guitar’s original owner may have been Jimi Hendrix. But Gerry Rhodes’s reckless personal history leads to more questions than Rolly and Lucinda have bargained for, as an aging rock’n’roll impresario, his trophy wife, a Russian gangster, and the FBI get involved. When a forty-year-old shooting accident reveals a surprising connection to a pop star’s hit record, Rolly sees darker forces at work. And his and Lucinda’s lives hang in the balance.
Book Details:
Genre: Private Detective Mystery, Cozy Mystery
Published by: Konstellation Press
Publication Date: March 2023
Number of Pages: 276
ISBN10: 0998748285
ISBN13: 9780998748283
Series: A Rolly Waters Mystery, 5th
Purchase Links #CommissionEarned: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
Praise for Gillespie Field Groove:
“Gillespie Field Groove hits all the right notes. Music fans and general mystery readers alike will enjoy this story’s irresistible beat.”
~ blueinkreview.com
“Exciting, compelling, suspenseful, and reflective of the realities of the music industry and San Diego culture, Gillespie Field Groove is a thrilling mystery novel in which a man seeks to right the wrongs committed by greedy executives.”
~ forewordreviews.com
“GILLESPIE FIELD GROOVE is a gripping mystery and a captivating ride through rock and roll history and San Diego’s music scene. It’s so authentic you can practically hear the fuzz and crunch of Jimi’s Stratocaster coming off the page.”
~ Matthew Quirk, New York Times bestselling author of RED WARNING and THE NIGHT AGENT (now a Netflix series)
“Rolly Waters is back with a ripped-from-the-headlines thriller custom-made for music lovers. Hired to hunt down a missing Fender Strat that may have belonged to Jimi Hendrix, Waters uncovers a series of intertwined mysteries with more twists than a crate full of guitar cables. Gillespie Field Groove is an uptempo page-turner that shines a spotlight on the music industry’s darkest corners.”
~ S.W. Lauden, author of BAD CITIZEN CORPORATION and THAT’LL BE THE DAY: A POWER POP HEIST
“Carefully crafted characters. Twists and revelations. Music and murder. A PI who plays guitar or a guitar player who dallies in detecting? Even Rolly Waters isn’t sure. Whichever it is, Corey Lynn Fayman’s latest gives you a real insight into what it means to be both. Like Don Quixote wielding a guitar instead of a sword. Awesome.”
~ Pamela Cowan, author of COLD KILL
“GILLESPIE FIELD GROOVE is like an easter egg hunt filled with suspense and intrigue that also gives readers a straightforward look into the life of a working musician. I love this series.”
~ Marc Intravaia, guitarist, RICHIE FURAY BAND; BACK TO THE GARDEN
Author Bio:
Corey Lynn Fayman has worked as a musician, sound technician, and interactive designer. He holds a B.A. in English, with a specialization in creative writing and poetry from UCLA, and an M.A. in Educational Technology from San Diego State University. Fayman spent five years as a sound technician and designer at the nationally lauded Old Globe Theatre, where he received several nominations and a Drama-Logue Award for his theatrical sound design. He’s worked as an interactive designer for organizations both corporate and sundry and has taught technology and design courses at various colleges and universities. He lives in San Diego, California, and is the author of four Rolly Waters mystery series, including Black’s Beach Shuffle, Border Field Blues, and Desert City Diva (2015 Indiefab Book of the Year bronze award). The fourth in the series, Ballast Point Breakdown, was honored with the best-in-show Geisel Award at the 2021 San Diego Book Awards.
Catch Up With Corey Fayman:
www.CoreyLynnFayman.com
Goodreads
BookBub – @clfayman
Twitter – @CLFayman
Facebook – @CoreyLynnFayman
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The Book Diva's Reads 
Thanks so much for the interesting guest post! I have never been that far west, but I would love to someday.
This sounds like a fun book.
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