The Last Songbird by Daniel Weizmann – Review

Annie Linden was a music icon of the 1970s whose star faded in old age. Adam Zantz is a Lyft driver and aspiring songwriter who had a chance encounter with Annie when he picked her up one day at her Malibu mansion. Soon they develop a beautiful friendship, and Zantz becomes Annie’s confidante and she his guru. But when Annie disappears, Zantz is left heartbroken. Then Annie’s corpse is washed up under a pier, and Zantz finds himself implicated in her death. To absolve himself of any suspicion, Zantz must interview Annie’s friends, colleagues and family, and in doing so, he discovers a side to the music idol that he never knew in life. But it isn’t long before the stakes get even higher. Zantz isn’t just fighting to prove his innocence, he becomes involved with dangerous people who have the same fate in mind for him as the ill-fated Annie.

I’m going to come right out and say that I loved The Last Songbird and devoured it in a couple of sittings. The novel works beautifully on several levels. Firstly, as a crime narrative Weizmann unravels the mystery with a solid pacing and confident hold on the reader. Just when you think a resolution is approaching, Zantz is floored by a witness confession that turns the story and his perception of Annie on its head. Each person Zantz meets, and every interview he conducts, is a lovingly rendered character sketch. The more damaged the characters, the more Weizmann seems to empathise with them. He has created a portrait of Southern California and the Pacific Coast Highway that rivals the best work of Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald. This is a world of showbiz hangers-on, grasping agents, failed artists and strange cults. The latter of which are portrayed through a misogynistic men’s club which is both sinister and pathetic.

Ultimately, everything in The Last Songbird merges seamlessly as Weizmann knows this world, having been part of the LA cultural scene for decades. The relationship between Annie and Zantz will break your heart as, I suspect, we have all had an Annie Linden in our lives. A star from a bygone age, back when there was a worrying lack of accountability in showbiz, but also no internet to eat into the profits of struggling artists. This is a novel that will make you recall your treasured conversations with that mentor and your secret crush. As a torch song to that person in your life and their era, The Last Songbird is nothing short of a masterpiece.