Getting in Tune

This novel from former music critic Trott tells the tale of fictional mid-1970s California rockers the Killjoys, who travel to a rundown hotel in Washington State to chase their dreams of musical superstardom. High school dropout Daniel Travers is a self-confessed Pete Townshend junkie, daydreaming about rock stardom, when he gets a call from a promoter who wants his band to follow in the footsteps of musical legends Jimi Hendrix and Heart by playing the Mai Tai Hotel. Travers’s band mates, including lead singer Mick (no coincidence there) and henpecked bassist Rob, warily agree to the gig. However, they arrive to find the hotel is a Hell’s Angels hangout and an incubator for plenty of alcohol- and drug-related trouble. When the group’s week-long run comes to an end, they are offered an even better gig, but at what cost? Though there are a few funny lines (“I was higher than a Bee Gee on helium”), Trott missteps by creating a band out of stereotypes—the dropout who dreams of hitting it big, the party animal front man—and deploying too-familiar rock scene obstacles—drugs, competing egos, girlfriends. (June)