Thursday 28th October 1982.
Hammersmith Odeon, London.
Iron Maiden are about to play in front of a sold-out crowd. This engagement is crucial for the band, who have just changed their lead singer and try to face the protests against their latest album, The Number of the Beast, accused with links to Satanism. A tragedy is round the corner: Liam and Rose, who belong to a Catholic sect, are also there, stuffed with enough explosive C4 to cause a terrible massacre.
Six weeks before, a journalist called Luke Wilkinson, is found dead on the banks of the Thames. Everything found at the scene leads to a suicide, but Inspector Andrew Briggs does not agree. He decides to investigate on his own, but the deeper he digs, the more complicated the mosaic becomes.
What is the relationship between Luke’s death and the two terrorists?
In a turn of events, intertwined with past and present on the London-Unites States axis, this becomes much more than a simple murder or a terrorist attack: a capillary, worldwide organization willing to go any lengths in the name of God.
Iron Maiden will be the key to unravel the mystery, but how?
Thursday 28th October 1982.
Hammersmith Odeon, London.
Iron Maiden are about to play in front of a sold-out crowd. This engagement is crucial for the band, who have just changed their lead singer and try to face the protests against their latest album, The Number of the Beast, accused with links to Satanism. A tragedy is round the corner: Liam and Rose, who belong to a Catholic sect, are also there, stuffed with enough explosive C4 to cause a terrible massacre.
Six weeks before, a journalist called Luke Wilkinson, is found dead on the banks of the Thames. Everything found at the scene leads to a suicide, but Inspector Andrew Briggs does not agree. He decides to investigate on his own, but the deeper he digs, the more complicated the mosaic becomes.
What is the relationship between Luke’s death and the two terrorists?
In a turn of events, intertwined with past and present on the London-Unites States axis, this becomes much more than a simple murder or a terrorist attack: a capillary, worldwide organization willing to go any lengths in the name of God.
Iron Maiden will be the key to unravel the mystery, but how?
October 28, 1982
Hammersmith district
London, UK
5.44 pm.
Rose jumped out of the train.
As soon as her feet touched the platform, she looked around several times. Too many, far too many eyes landed on her like flies, watching, making her flinch.
She hastened her pace towards the exit. She was afraid she would not make it.
In her mind, the tension took on the form of a man pursuing her, preventing her from arriving in time.
At rush hour, Hammersmith tube station was amongst the busiest in London. She wanted to avoid it, but she was now getting close. Only another five-minutes’ walk to the Odeon, which had already been sold out for weeks, for the Iron Maiden concert.
The bomb was in the ladies' room, in the cistern of the second cubicle from the left. Martin had placed it the night before, then he had closed the door from the outside, using a coin. Rose would have had to open it in the same way.
That evening she would have been in the arms of God. The ultimate sacrifice. The curiosity to find out what it would have been like to live in Heaven, had now become a morbid fascination. She was thinking of this, in order to overcome her anxiety.
She walked out onto Beadon Road and looked up at the sky. The cold London autumn hit her right in the face with a gust of wind. The sweat on her brow turned cold. She masked the annoyance by turning her face, as if she had been slapped.
It was essential to arrive early. It was ten minutes before the doors opened and she had to be among the first people in. A quick touch to the back pocket of her jeans, and the relief to feel the shape of her staff badge, which Liam had provided for. She would have been ahead of the crowd of fans with it, at the sold-out show. And the numerous small groups of people, marching briskly in the same direction as her, made clear once more, how important it was to be in the building early.
Poor things, it will be the last concert of their life.
Rose changed her brisk stride into a small trot. The race was on.
She went over the things to do. Enter from the stage door, drop into the women's restroom, open the second cubicle from the left with a coin, and enter. Lift the lid of the cistern over the bowl. Take the C4, bandaged in the wrapping paper, and connect the electric wires to the detonator she had with her. Brown with brown and blue with blue. Wrap a small strip of electrical tape around the cable joints. The detonator, similar to a pot-bellied lighter, but a little longer, had contact with the battery separated by a plastic tab connected to a spring button, and held in place by a safety lever.
She smiled as soon as she remembered the definition 'pot-bellied lighter'. She remembered laughing with Liam when Martin, in his Tyne and Wear accent, had explained the device to the Soldiers of God. Once that the button was pressed firmly, it would have broken the tab that made contact with the battery, sending the necessary electric shock, which in a few seconds would have made the plastic explode.
“Simple and effective” the elderly former-soldier concluded.
An interesting figure. He will remain in this world, continuing the mission to wipe out Satan, while Liam and I will return to the arms of God, who will reward us for the work we have done. We will remain united for eternity.
She turned the corner of Talgarth Road and behind the pillars of the causeway was now visible the crowd waiting for the doors to open. She crossed the street and looked for the staff entrance. It was a smaller door on the right-hand side bearing a sign: STAFF ONLY.
Her stomach bothered her and she felt a little nauseous.
You are too anxious... come on, breathe, don't be silly.
She showed the badge to the guard. A policewoman stepped in front of her and smiled.
“Hello!”
Rose tried to reciprocate.
“Can I take a look at your backpack?”
She did not expect the staff to be searched as well. A shiver ran down her spine.
“Of course.”
She tried to stretch the muscles of her face to draw a serene and relaxed expression. She took off her backpack and handed it over.
The woman placed it on a small table to her left. The short corridor that separated Rose from the entrance to the theatre hall now felt miles long.
“Arms up please”, said the policewoman, as she felt her jacket and pants near her pockets.
When she finished the body search, the Policewoman opened the backpack and put her hand inside. She pulled out a soft wool sweater, a small make-up bag and an Iron Maiden t-shirt featuring the cover of the concert album, The Number of the Beast. The woman gently placed everything on the table and sank her hands again, like a bear reaching for honey in the hollow of a tree. A small roll of insulating tape came out, a bottle of still water and a baguette wrapped in transparent film from which the filling of salad, sliced cheddar cheese, ham and mayonnaise showed clearly.
Rose felt another pain in the stomach that went through the entire body. Heart was racing. She ran a hand through her blonde hair.
“That looks nice. Are you going to be hungry?” the Policewoman asked with an expression between amused and curious.
Then, she put the contents back in the backpack, with extreme professionalism. Rose cracked a smile and stammered an answer.
“I always make my own sandwiches, as I like to know what I'm eating. It’s going to be a very long evening.”
“Okay! Enjoy your evening, and your sandwich then.”
The policewoman returned the backpack.
Rose walked down the narrow corridor. “You too.”
Great intuition to put some mayo. No-one is going to pull that apart.
The detonator was inside the sandwich.
This is the English translation of an Italian thriller set in the early 1980s, inspired by the author’s evident passion for legendary English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. The book features real-life members of the band as minor characters in a plot about a conspiracy to blow them up during a concert. This was a brilliant idea, unfortunately let down by very poor translation, frequent errors, a confusing narrative arrangement and an unlikeable central protagonist.
So first the positives - this was an original idea, features heavy metal fans as normal people from all walks of life, shows a lot of knowledge of the music scene of the time, and delivers a tense and entertaining plot. Unfortunately these are outweighed by problems with the writing, that were probably not an issue in the Italian version. (The author apparently moved to Britain in 2013.) This needs a line by line rewrite by a native English speaker. It’s not so bad that you can’t follow the story, and the spelling is perfect, it’s just horribly distracting. Similarly, the book needed some English beta-readers to pick out all the errors - some Italian ones are thanked, but they couldn’t know how English detectives and clergy are referred to etc. etc.
Then there’s the completely jumbled timeline, presumably to introduce some twists. This didn’t work for me at all. Each chapter is given a date, but it was really hard to keep track of what was happening to whom when, made worse by the introduction of multiple minor characters of minimal relevance who are referred to out of context and often only explained later on. I would rather have had many more scenes featuring the musicians themselves. Also, minor character are repeated eg Chris, Peter, Bob/Bobby/Robert, and many of the more significant characters’ fates are left unresolved. Andrew, the “hero” is a complete a**e - arrogant, lazy, self-pitying. The only significant female characters are a deluded killer, a feeble love interest and a kindly prostitute. We only meet one female fan!
I received an ARC through the Reedsy Discovery Programme in order to provide an honest review. I’m sorry to be so critical as I was a massive Maiden fan in my late teens, so really thought I would love this.