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A hard-boiled crime novel set in the jazz world of Harlem between
1936 and 1961, Viper's Dream combines elements of the epic
Godfather films and the detective novels of Chester Himes to tell
the story of one of the most respected and feared Black gangsters
in America. At the centre of Viper's Dream is a turbulent love
story. And the climax bears an element of Greek tragedy. For the
better part of 20 years, Clyde 'The Viper' Morton has been in love
with Yolanda 'Yo-Yo' DeVray, a singer of immense talent but a woman
consumed by demons. By turns ambitious and self-destructive,
conniving and naive, Yo-Yo is a classic femme fatale. She is a
bright star in a constellation of compelling characters including
the chauffeur-turned-gangster Peewee Robinson, the Jewish kingpin
Abraham 'Mr. O' Orlinsky, the heroin dealer West Indian Charlie,
the corrupt cop Red Carney, the wife-beating singer Pretty Paul
Baxter, the pimp Buttercup Jones and the brutal enforcer Randall
Country Johnson. But Viper's Dream has a fast-paced vibe all its
own, a story charged with suspense, intrigue and plot twists and
spiced with violence and humour. It is also steeped in music. The
Viper's story is intertwined with the history of jazz over a
quarter century.
"Rendezvous Eighteenth" marks the emergence of an exciting voice in
crime fiction. Ricky Jenks gave up life in the U.S. years ago and
is content, if not happy, with his life as a piano player in a
small cafe in the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris. He has many
friends among the other African-Americans living in Paris and is
happily, if casually, involved with a French Muslim woman.
But then everything changes. His American life comes crashing down
on him when his estranged cousin wants help finding his runaway
wife, whom he thinks might have come to Paris, even though he's
vague about why. That same night Ricky finds a prostitute dead in
his apartment building in Paris's Eighteenth Arrondissment, one of
the most multicultural sections of Paris. That these two events
could be connected is something he never imagines.
This intricate, absorbing thriller is ultimately much more than a
suspense novel. Lamar's detailed and vibrant portrait of life in
Paris is as much the story of a black man's alienation and
redemption-indeed, the story of an entire community searching for a
home-as it is a taut thriller about revenge, obsession, and
murder.
From authors including National Book Award winner Pete Hautman,
Deadly Ink 2007 winner Darrell James, and renowned social
commentator turned short-story writer Mike Davis, Politics Noir is
a chilling and subversive collection of new crime stories featuring
greed, corruption, insatiable ambition-and murder in the very
highest places.
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Paperback
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R383
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Discovery Miles 3 180
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