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A Phat Death(A Nina Halligan Mystery) By Norman Kelley Mystery/African-American Studies | Trade Paperback
Click here to see author photo & read an exclusive interview with Norman Kelley. Click here to read chapter 1 of A Phat Death. The much-anticipated new installment in the Nina Halligan mystery series. Nina takes the music industry by storm; no music mogul Nor sinister Hip-Hop star is left standing. "Want a scathing social and political satire? Look no further than Norman Kelley's second effort featuring 'bad girl' African-American PI and part-time intellectual Nina Halligan -- it's a romp of a read . . ." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review of The Big Mango) Outspoken novelist and social critic Norman Kelley has been in the eye of many intellectual storms in 2003. But no storm matches that of Nina Halligan, Kelley's private investigator with a finger always on her trigger. In A Phat Death, Nina sets her sites on those, black and white, who continue Americašs tradition of pimping race for profit. Relaxin' like Bird at Camarillo in a suana, Nina and Anna, Zee, Esperanza and La Bomba ("Bad Girls International") celebrate Nina's recent marriage to Glen Sierra, a suave musician and journalist. Nina believes that she is going to retire graciously from private investigation and become a mother again. But a hit on SugarDick, a notorious hip-hopper, and Glen's relentless investigation of the killing plunges both of them into the vortex of a murderous power struggle over a valuable commodity in the recording industry: black music. Forced to flee their bombed apartment and wanted by Il Duce's NYPD, Nina and Glen follow a trail of mayhem and murder that leads them to Rolf Fergus, a ruthless South African media baron, who has designs on controlling black music for his media empire, InfoGlobal. Nina also meets a host of denizens of the music world: Baby Cakes, China Mercury, the Pasha (the owner of Fez Records), Taliaferro, the impresario of niggacool, China Mercury, and the mouth Almighty of hip-hop, Big Poppa Insane. Yet a series of twist and turns -- jumping from New York to Paris to New York, and then to New Mexico -- leads Nina to confront a betrayal to the rhythms that she hadn't imagined. She experiences the essence of noir soul. Norman Kelley is a freelance journalist, author, and former segment producer at WBAI 99.5 FM Pacifica Radio. He has written for Newsday, the Village Voice, Black Renaissance/Noir, The Bedford Stuyvesant Current, New York Press, and Word.com. He is the author of the "noir soul"/ mystery series that features Nina Halligan in Black Heat (Amistad/HarperCollins) and The Big Mango (Akashic). He was a contributing writer to Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs at the Turn of the Millennium (Random House 2000), and he edited and contributed to R&B (Rhythm and Business): The Political Economy of Black Music (Akashic). Mr. Kelley has also appeared on numerous radio shows around the United States, including Tavis Smiley (NPR) and nearly every station in New York City. On sale now for only $10 (including shipping!): Limited first edition copies of Black Heat, Kelley's first novel in the Nina Halligan Series. |
