The Last Songbird -- Daniel Weizmann, Paperback

"Blending the bright lights of celebrity and fame with the primal urges and darkness ... Weizmann is a confident, polished storyteller who honors his influences and while weaving his amateur detective through a complex mystery that will keep you turning the pages until you've reached the haunting finale. A sharp, memorable debut." -- Alex Segura, bestselling author of Secret Identity

A gritty, fast-paced neo-noir that explores the consumptive nature of fame, celebrity, and motherhood through the lens of a driver lost in the gig economy.

A struggling songwriter and Lyft driver, Adam Zantz's life changes when he accepts a ride request in Malibu and 1970s music icon Annie Linden enters his dented VW Jetta. Bonding during that initial ride, the two quickly go off app-- over the next three years, Adam becomes her exclusive driver and Annie listens to his music, encouraging Adam even as he finds himself driving more often than songwriting.

Then, Annie disappears, and her body washes up under a pier. Left with a final, cryptic text-- 'come to my arms'-- a grieving Adam plays amateur detective, only to be charged as accomplice-after-the-fact. Desperate to clear his name and discover who killed the one person who believed in his music when no one else in his life did, Adam digs deep into Annie's past, turning up an old guitar teacher, sworn enemies and lovers, and a long-held secret that spills into the dark world of a shocking underground Men's Rights movement. As he drives the outskirts of Los Angeles in California, Adam comes to question how well he, or anyone else, knew Annie-- if at all.

The Last Songbird is a poignant novel about love, obsession, the price of fame and the burden of broken dreams, with a shifting, twisting plot that's full of unexpected turns.

Author: Daniel Weizmann
Publisher: Melville House Publishing
Published: 05/23/2023
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.40w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9781685890308

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 03/06/2023
Library Journal 03/01/2023 pg. 124
Kirkus Reviews 04/01/2023

About the Author
Daniel Weizmann is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Billboard, the Guardian, AP Newswire, and more. Under the nom de plume, Shredder, Weizmann also wrote for the long running Flipside fanzine, as well as LA Weekly, which once called him "an incomparable punk stylist." Most recently, Weizmann co-authored Game Changer by Michael Solomon and Rishon Blumberg (Harper Leadership, 2020). He lives in Los Angeles, California.