Dead by Popular Demand: A Harlem Noir Featuring Devil Barnett

by Teddy Hayes

Overview

Behind the glitter and the hype of the music business, Devil Barnett discovers a world of drugs, murder, betrayal and backstabbing, and that he may be next on the hit parade.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781932112238
Publisher:	Justin, Charles & Co.
Publication date:	09/16/2005
Series:	Devil Barnett Series , #2
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.48(h) x 0.92(d)

Editorial Reviews

Introduced in Hayes's Blood Red Blues (2004), Devil Barnett leaves his headquarters at the Be-Bop Tavern for a second entertaining tough-guy prowl through the dangerous underbelly of Harlem. When two members of the breakout British rap band Dancehall Dogz are viciously murdered, Devil, a former wet-ops hitman for the CIA, gets on the case. Against a music business backdrop of remix fees and "cleans," promotional CDs that often end up for sale in record stores, Devil encounters a cast that includes crooked ministers, crack whores and band managers who "wouldn't have the brains to manage Elvis if he came back from the dead." A sidetrip to London derails the action briefly, but when the setting is Harlem, the reading is fast and fun. Agent, Bob Silverstein at Quicksilver Books. (Nov.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Ex-CIA agent-turned-PI Barnett is back, unearthing the dirt behind the death of two members of a top rap group in this "hot-blooded, hip-hop" follow-up to Blood Red Blues. Hayes lives in Cleveland. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Harlem renaissance man Devil Barnett probes the death of two rising rappers. The sublime sound of the seven-man group Dancehall Dogz, Jamaican with a touch of hip-hop, has taken the music world by storm, and the London group is living high in New York City. But their success threatens to come crashing down when two of the Dogz, Shogun and Man O War, are found dead in Harlem of decapitation and a drug overdose, respectively. Man O War's uncle Livingston Holmes, a wealthy neighborhood real-estate broker, enlists the help of Ernest "Devil" Barnett, ex-CIA agent, owner of the popular Be-Bop Tavern and sometime sleuth (Blood Red Blues, 2004), in finding his nephew's killer. Devil's cool first-person narrative is interspersed with italicized passages that bring victims and perps up close. Never one to tread softly, Devil takes only a single day to visit the lawyer who crafted the group's latest contract, the All-Star Rehearsal Studios, where the remaining Dogz are working on their new release, and the offices of Grooveline Records. Devil's scorched-earth investigation unmasks slick Reverend Jennings of God's Holy Tabernacle. Proving the Reverend's guilt, though, is another matter that will require an extended game of cat-and-mouse. Hayes still writes with a heavy hand, but his sophomore effort deepens the evocative portrait of his community and eschews mystery for a stronger p.i. model.

Kirkus Reviews