Eddie and the Cruisers

Book excerpt: The classic novel that gave rise to a movie franchise. “A warm, entertaining, and highly evocative story of youth, music, and growing up in the 1950s.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer Eddie and his Jersey-bred band, The Parkway Cruisers, were going places. With an album and a few minor hits to their credit the future seemed bright until Eddie died in a fiery car crash. Twenty years later a British rock band turns their old songs into monumental fresh hits. With this comes a surge of interest in the surviving Cruisers and in a rumored cache of tapes that Eddie made before he died. That’s when the killing starts . . . “An excellently crafted book. The dialogue is sharp, the book is packed with exquisite description and a surprise ending.” —Sunday Journal and Star “Eddie and the Cruisers seems at first glance to be only a smartly written novel about nostalgia for the music of the late 1950s. It quickly proves, however, to be a remarkably good suspense story, full of vivid characters and some hilarious dialogue.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Sparkling dialogue, wonderful characterizations and a plot which dazzles.” —Enterprise Sun “[A] good mix of everyday blues with old-time bebop.” —Booklist