ALBUM: Cinerama

Former Wedding Present frontman David Gedge has always treated the music business with an edge of cynicism.

Never taking his career too seriously, despite once almost becoming a corporate tool himself, he is now content to leave those hedonistic rock 'n' roll years behind him.

Gedge's current project, the soundtrack-immersed Cinerama, playfully toys with movie-inspired fiction, brushing shoulders with John Barry.

Disco Volante is Cinerama's second album, and towers above its debut. Rich in orchestration, it has grandiose pop masterpieces from the French-inspired Lollabrigida to the English catchiness of Wow.

The chances of Gedge again becoming a Top of the Pops darling is slim, but the charming sound of Cinerama's new effort will be reward enough.

Gedge will always be a star in many people's eyes, and he still manages to shine for me.

JAMES HEWARD

NOVEL Hard Time

Private eye VI Warshawski is used to biting off more than she can chew as she probes corruption in Chicago.

But as she looks into the death of a woman who died after escaping prison, Sara Paretsky's fictional heroine risks choking to death.

Her friends are threatened, her associates are killed and her business is ruined as she takes on both a global news empire and a massive security firm.

Warshawski eventually finds herself a prisoner in the same jail she is investigating, at the mercy of ruthless guards.

Hard Time, costing £5.99 in Penguin paperback is a chunky and involving read, a little overlong at 400 pages but well worth staying with.

Its heroine may be finding it hard to be feisty in her forties, but she's still as stubborn, tenacious and crusading as ever - and still one of fiction's top three female private eyes.

DAVID KNIGHTS