Kirjahaku

Los Angeles in the 1940s. World War II is raging. But people find escape in the upbeat swing music of the black nightclub scene on Central Avenue. Bobby Saxon is one of the few white faces in a sea of black at the famous Club Alabam on Central. He comes to watch the Booker 'Boom-Boom' Taylor Orchestra--a swing band. But he doesn't only want to watch--he wants to join the band. He's pretty good on the 88s (the piano) and band-leader Booker lets him audition. Bobby gets his wish and finds himself playing on a temporary basis with the band for the "swells" on the Apollo, a gambling ship, just outside the legal limits of U.S. waters off the coast. But soon all hell breaks loose when Hans Dietrich, a German man, doing business in America gets into a fight with the band's sax player, James Christmas. After the band's next set, Dietrich's dead body breaks through a false ceiling in the ship's ballroom. And James is the prime suspect. The cops shut the ship down. And with the band unable to work now, Booker makes Bobby an offer: help clear James of the murder charges by playing detective and finding the real killer and he can have a permanent gig with the band. Booker thinks that Bobby, with his white skin and white privilege (though not a term used then) and boyish good looks, can go places Booker can't to find the real killer, since he doesn't trust the cops to do their job for a colored man. Bobby's investigation takes him on a labyrinthine journey through the worlds of nightclubs, gambling ships and gangsters, corruption, anti-Semitism and racism. He also comes across David Chambers, an old high school friend, who may or may not be involved, as well as the dead German's secretary and her tough and seemingly crazy boyfriend, Sam Wilde. Bobby's determined to solve the case and get a permanent gig with the band. But he also needs to come to terms with his own double-life and secrets that he's not ready to reveal to the world.

Winner of the 2013 Shamus Award for Best Indie PI Novel PI Duke Rogers finds himself in a combustible situation in this racially charged thriller. His case might have to wait... The immediate problem: getting out of South Central Los Angeles in one piece during the 1992 "Rodney King" riots and that's just the beginning of his problems. Duke finds an old "friend" for a client. The client's "friend," an up and coming African-American actress, ends up dead. Duke knows his client did it. Feeling guilty that he inadvertently helped the killer find the victim, he wants to track down the client/killer. He starts his mission by going to the dead actress' family in South Central L.A.--and while there the "Rodney King" riots ignite. While Duke searches for the killer he must also deal with the racism of his partner, Jack, and from Warren, the murder victim's brother, who is a mirror image of Jack in that department. He must also confront his own possible latent racism--even as he's in an interracial relationship with the dead woman's sister. Praise for WHITE HEAT: ..".taut crime yarn set in 1992 against the turmoil of the Los Angeles riots that followed the acquittal of the police officers charged with assaulting motorist Rodney King.... the author ably evokes the chaos that erupted after the Rodney King verdict." --Publishers Weekly "White Heat is a riveting read of mystery, much recommended." --Midwest Book Review " White Heat] really caught early 90s' LA, in all its sordid glory. And had me turning pages late into the night. I think WH is up there with the best of the LA novels, but has an air of authenticity that many lack." --Woody Haut, journalist, author of Neon Noir: Contemporary American Crime Fiction, Pulp Culture: Hardboiled Fiction & the Cold War, and Heartbreak and Vine: The Fate of Hardboiled Writers in Hollywood "Expect the unexpected...in an action-walloping award-winner of harrowing twists and turns..." --Gordon Hauptfleisch, Seattle Post Intelligencer and BlogCritics.org "A gripping tale of prejudice and deceit, set against the tumultuous backdrop of the 1992 L.A. riots. White Heat is all the title promises it to be." --Darrell James, award-winning author of Nazareth Child and Sonora Crossing "Written in a staccato, noir style as intense as the 1992 LA riots, White Heat is a stunning debut novel. It grabs you with the intensity of the riots and keeps the anxiety and tension pushing full-throttle right up to the bittersweet ending. White Heat is a hard-hitting, noir detective thriller that also deals with tough issues like racism, the 'diversity' of racism, and the human condition." --Andrew McAleer, bestselling author of 101 Habits of Highly Successful Novelists and Fatal Deeds

While the storm rages over California's notorious anti-illegal alien Proposition 187, a young woman climbs to the top of the famous Hollywood Sign--and jumps to her death. An undocumented day laborer is murdered. And a disbarred and desperate lawyer in Venice Beach places an ad in a local paper that says: "Will Do Anything For Money." Private investigator Duke Rogers, infamous for solving the case of murdered starlet Teddie Matson, feels he must do "penance" for his inadvertent part in her death. To that end, he takes on the case of Carlos, the murdered day-laborer, as a favor to his sister Marisol, the housekeeper down the street from Duke's house. Duke must figure out what ties together Carlos' murder, the ex-lawyer's desperate ad and the woman jumping from the sign? And who is the mysterious "coyote"? Amid the controversial political storm surrounding California's Proposition 187, Duke and his very unPC sidekick Jack are on the case. They slingshot from the Hollywood Sign to Venice Beach. From East Hollywood to the "suicide bridge" in Pasadena, and from Smuggler's Gulch near the Mexican border back to L.A. again. Their mission catapults them through a labyrinth of murder, intrigue and corruption of church and state that hovers around the immigration debate in this searing sequel to the explosive Shamus Award-winning novel White Heat.