Although this novel will quickly put you in mind of Daisy Jones and the Six, by Taylor Jenkins Reid, it uses the same sort of device to deliver an altogether different story. Keep in mind throughout that this is a fiction novel, not about real people. You know fiction is well done when it is so convincing, you almost find yourself Googling to locate background on the characters, as if they really lived. We learn of an afro-punk duo, Opal Jewel and Nev Charles, a black woman from Detroit and a white Brit from Birmingham, UK, an altogether unlikely pair, and their short-lived success in the early seventies. Reminiscent of Tina Turner and Mick Jagger, we see a fusion of styles that is proverbial lightning in a bottle.

Knit together with interviews, notes, some narrative, letters, editor’s notes, and an assortment of sources, our protagonist, Sunny Curtis, successful rock journalist and editor of Aural magazine, a fictional pop music publication, seeks to write a book about the duo. This timely project is set to be announced in tandem with a reunion concert of Opal & Nev, nearly fifty years after their premier. Sunny has much at stake and not a little of an agenda, as she is the daughter of Jimmy Curtis, drummer of Opal & Nev’s original band, and Opal’s former lover. Jimmy lost his life during a riot at their first big concert, attempting to defend Opal from harm. Sunny has very mixed feelings toward Opal, and the deeper she digs, the more controversy she unearths about that tragic performance. Going beyond what would be required for good reportage, Sunny must learn truths about her father, Opal, and Nev.

This is an interesting time for novels that reexamine the seventies, that decade following the tumultuous sixties, with great forward movement in civil rights in the U.S. From where we sit in the 2020s, we have a nostalgia for those early days of racial equality. If you lived through that time, you can see how social media, cell phones, and technology have changed social progress. Especially interesting are the interlocking influences of pop culture and social change. This book examines all of this, with a very faithful presentation of those times. Walton does real justice to that time. Great summer read, and a good book club choice. Recommended.