Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Synopsis
Congressman Shapply, a former music insider who now leads the crusade against offensive lyrics in rap songs, is attacked and murdered in from of his Washington D.C. home. His son Nick is arrested and charged with murder. For veteran music journalist Mick Sever, covering this case is personal. Sever, best friend of the accused killer, believes his friend's claims of innocence. With the help of an old flame, Mick must penetrate the bizarre Shapply family - the icy matriarch Alicia, the disturbed daughter Amber and the religious brother-in-law - to find the truth. The investigation will take Mick from the halls of the Capital to the beaches of Barbados. Threatened by unknown assailants and dangers at every turn, Mick becomes the hunted as killer turns the tables in a stunning climax.
Publishers Weekly
As in Bruns's mystery debut, Jamaica Blue (2002), music journalist Mick Sever doesn't so much detect as just survive in this unconvincing tale of sex and murder with a Caribbean flavor. Robert Shapply, a born-again congressman, has turned over a new leaf and now wants to clean up the record industry by holding hearings designed to put some rappers and theirs labels out of business for good. Shortly before the hearings, someone brutally murders Shapply on the steps of his D.C. townhouse. Once friendly with Shapply and best friends with Shapply's stepson, Nick Brand, Mick soured on the duo when they left him almost bankrupt in a failed joint enterprise. Soon Nick is in jail on suspicion of murder, and an up-and-coming rapper is fingered as the hit man. Nick's imperious mother, Alicia Shapply; Alicia's brother, evangelist Joseph Evans; and Mick's ex-wife, Ginny, help liven up the proceedings, lending advice or assistance as Mick tracks the story from Washington to Florida and Barbados into the distant past. Unfortunately, the author's staccato style seems merely disjointed and the plot wanders so off key, readers will be unable to carry the tune. (Nov. 10) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.