One thing that’s fascinating that I do in the new book is look at what people said at the time. When I looked at Charlie McCoy’s version that he gave at the time, that he give in Hit Parade in October 1966, he gets all the historical information right. He remembers Dylan arriving from Richmond, Virginia. That’s a serious little piece of information to have remembered.

Double Life Books - Goodreads Double Life Books - Goodreads

Now maybe it was me but I kind of got the impression that Mr Heylin started to drown in all these archives, especially the drafts upon drafts of early versions of lyrics which we are continually being told are located in the Tulsa Museum of Bobness or were sold at Sotheby’s for two million dollars. The last chapters are stuffed with this horrible melange of half-thoughts and unlyrical scraps. Look! Here is a fragment that is the missing link between Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues and Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window… pardon me for not being gripped. And while Mr Heylin was entranced by all these previously ungoggled-at details he seems to miss framing some of the more dramatic moments in a familiar can’t see the trees for the wood problem that besets those too close to their material. A tale set in England. Years ago, an English peer murdered his maid and ran off. No one ever able to find out where he went. For years the man's wife looked for him, but got no cooperation from the man's friends. The premise sounded intriguing but an uneven writing style, poorly developed characters and a confusing tone made this a dud. This psychological thriller alternates between the events that happened in the past and the current investigation that Claire has begun on her own. It is a story of class, privilege, deception, and the memories that a child holds about her family. It’s hard to put this one down as Claire inches closer to discovering the truth.

The cultural scene in NYC in that era is fascinating, however, and I am learning a lots about what went on in the folk world. Natalie, a child in the Quinn family, had a difficult life. Her mother constantly taunted and bullied her, while her sister tried to take everything she had, including her boyfriend. However, the most pressing issue was the medical expenses of her foster mother Hannah, the only person who had shown Natalie kindness throughout her life and had raised her since childhood. Gabriela had experienced unexpected internal challenges in the workplace, following her return to work from maternity leave. She felt that her position had been side-lined and that all her hard work had suddenly been over-looked. Gabriela always wanted recognition and success but this drive was to impact her life in ways she could never have imagined. The threads start to break and Gabriela’s world suddenly becomes unexpectedly complex and quite terrifying. Claire's father, Colin Spenser, did a Lord Lucan disappearance as well. His car was later found in a field abandoned with bloodstained seats. Afterwards, Claire's mother moves to a completely different locale with her children. The reader sits with thoughts of Colin's grotesque deed. Was it really Colin or was he set up some how? And where in the world has he escaped to?

Life by Charlotte Philby | Goodreads A Duplicitous Life by Charlotte Philby | Goodreads

Dylan is a brilliant artist that has made brilliant art. What I look for in a biography like this is some insight into the process and influences that produced the brilliant work. There is a good bit of that here, but not enough. The problem is Heylin seems content on chasing “facts” and not the sinew of the work itself. This novel looks at the aftermath of a crime and how it affected Claire and her young brother. Very few people know the truth about Claire’s real identity. Opening up to others has led to bad experiences for her and so she is very much alone, and lonely. Sometimes, it seems that life goes on, much as usual. She is a doctor in a busy practice, coping with issues, such as her brother’s reliance on prescription drugs, work issues and her obsession with her father.That material was revelatory since it was a missing period. There had been no documentation about that material. Audio excavations were already starting to happen. They were going through the tapes. And I had some roles to play in some of the Bootleg Series, especially the Basement Tapes one since they ended up using some of my tapes. [ Laughs] The original weren’t at hand. Heylin also tries to understand what kind of man Dylan was. There is much that is unpleasant about him. He was a compulsive liar. He was wildly insecure. He was a compulsive philanderer who expected absolute loyalty and love from the woman in his life. He bullied and abused those who worked for him and tended to surround himself with flunkies. Heylin is brutally honest about Dylan the man. In her last great novel, Daniel Deronda, Gwendolen Harleth is assaulted and humiliated sexually by Grandcourt. On her wedding night, awaiting Grandcourt’s arrival in the bedroom, she sees herself repeated ad infinitum in glass panels, becoming part of, as Carlisle puts it, “a long procession of virgin brides who have gone before and will follow after across the marital threshold”. Heylin’s depth of knowledge of all things Dylan enables him to sniff out the fake from the factual, shaking out truth from fiction. Dylan himself was a master magician at covering up his past. Other people who were ‘there’ tell conflicting stories. This is not an espionage novel at all but is being sold as one, it is more like domestic noir - a genre that tends to bore me. Author and publisher cashing in on the famous relative which is understandable but this book doesn't deliver what it promises and is poorly executed. Does she really know anything about espionage?