Three Rock & Roll icons. Two explosive tell-all memoirs. One ghostwriter caught in the middle.
Anke Berben is ready to tell all. A legendary model and style icon, she reveled in headline-grabbing romances with not one but three members of the hugely influential rock band the Midnight Ramblers. The band members were as famous for their backstage drama as for their music, and Anke is the only one who fully understands the tangled relationships, betrayals, and suspicions that have added to the Ramblers’ enduring appeal and mystique. That is most evident in the mystery around Anke’s role in the death of Mal, the band’s founder and Anke’s husband, in 1969.
When Mari Hawthorn accepts the job to work with Anke on her memoir, she is dead set on getting to the truth of Mal’s death. She has always been deft at navigating the fatal charms of celebrities, having grown up with a narcissistic, alcoholic father. As she ingratiates herself into the world of the band, she grows enchanted, against her better judgment, by these legendary rock stars. She knows she can’t get pulled in too deep, otherwise, she’ll compromise her objectivity―and her integrity.
Filled with all of the glamour and attitude of rock and roll, The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers is a bighearted page-turner that will appeal to fans of Daisy Jones & The Six and Almost Famous.
The Last Days of Midnight Ramblers: A Novel
By Sarah Tomlinson
Flatiron Books | Hardcover | ISBN-13: 978-125089048
Overview:
· Perfect for fans of Almost Famous and Daisy Jones & the Six!
· Explores a writer’s identity and what it means to have artistic realization.
· Draws on Sarah’s own professional experience with ghostwriting.
About Sarah Tomlinson:
Sarah Tomlinson, a former music journalist, has been a ghostwriter since 2008, penning more than 20 books, including five New York Times bestsellers. In 2015, she published the father-daughter memoir, Good Girl (Gallery Books). She wrote her debut novel The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers (Flatiron Books) in-between assignments for a who’s who of celebrity clients. Her personal essays have appeared in Westways, Marie Claire, MORE, Salon.com, Fusion.net, Publishers Weekly, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Huffington Post, and Off the Shelf, as well as the collections Slouching Towards Los Angeles: Living and Writing by Joan Didion’s Light (Rare Bird); Critically Acclaimed (Rare Bird); and He Never Came Home: (Agate Bolden). Her fiction has appeared on Vol. 1 Brooklyn. Her articles and music reviews have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Boston magazine, Spin.com, Billboard.com, Alternative Press, Swindle, Preen, Rockpile, The OC Weekly, and The Willamette Week. She wrote a weekly local music column, “Notes,” for The Boston Phoenix. She has written bios for bands on Virgin, Red Ink/Columbia, Fat Wreck Chords, and MySpace Records and contributed to the electronic press kits for artists on Warner Bros. Records. She lives in Los Angeles, and her favorite band is T. Rex.
Follow Sarah Tomlinson online:
Website: sarahtomlinson.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/duchessofrock/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahtomlinsongoodgirl/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/duchessofrock
Advance Praise:
“Tomlinson ably parlays her knowledge of the ghostwriting trade into an entertaining tableau of rock and roll’s grit and glamour. Classic rock fans will find much to enjoy.” —Publishers Weekly
“A seductive tale of fame, power, and celebrity. Tomlinson casts a spell over the reader while asking fascinating questions about ways we exchange money for access, secrets, and sometimes even love.” –Jenny Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Pineapple Street
“Tomlinson, the ghostwriter of many celebrity memoirs herself, ably demonstrates the fragile balance Mari must strike to earn her subjects’ trust while still uncovering the story readers want to hear.” —Booklist
“Tomlinson, a bestselling memoir ghostwriter herself, makes Mari’s job and desire to hunt down the truth feel realistic…An in-depth…look at the world of rock ’n’ roll.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers is an observant, suspenseful novel about an ambitious ghostwriter and the celebrities she manipulates, coddles, and sometimes loves. Sarah Tomlinson writes with compassion and sizzle, using her own skills as a ghostwriter to lend earth and substance to larger-than-life characters.” —Steph Cha, author of Your House Will Pay
“The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers is an irresistible foray into the private lives of the world’s most famous rock icons, as observed by the woman hired to curate their secrets. Sarah Tomlinson writes with devastating insight and intimacy about what it takes–and what it takes from you–to be a ghost. I couldn’t look away from this story about art, ambition, power, and our ultimate human desire: to be known.” –Katie Gutierrez, bestselling author of More Than You’ll Ever Know
“Tomlinson’s punky noir about rock stars and the quiet women behind them had me turning pages late into the night. Whether ghostwriters or talented groupies, it’s about the voices in the silence, the devastation that the entitled leave behind.” –Sarah Langan, author of Good Neighbors
“Tense, scary, and joyous all at once. California, booze, caffeine, drugs, murder, the desert, Vegas, and rock’n’roll. A fast-paced joy to read.” —John Doe, musician, actor, writer, and founding member of X
“A twisty, dazzling dive into the intoxication of fame and the hangover that follows. Sarah Tomlinson’s experience as a ghostwriter infuses her novel with emotional depth and juicy insider details. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s really like to work with celebrities, Tomlinson’s smart, nuanced novel is for you.” —Nina Simon, author of the Reese Pick Mother-Daughter Murder Night
