Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
In Phillips's third Ivan Monk mystery (after Violent Spring and Perdition, U.S.A.), the African American Los Angeles PI, who also owns a donut shop, investigates a fatal firebombing in the Rancho Tajuata housing project. Monk is hired by the head of the Ra-Falcons, a Black Muslim splinter group that was hired to work security at the multiracial project, to clear them of responsibility in the fiery death of a family from Mexico. The search for the bombers leads Monk through a minefield of racial tension between the black residents and the burgeoning Latino population and back to some shady financial dealings that started with the 1965 Watts riots. Monk's lady, Superior Court Judge Jill Kodama, is the object of a nasty recall campaign because of her reluctance to enforce the controversial "Three Strikes" law. Both story lines are compelling and supported by convincing characterization and effective action and sex scenes. But these qualities are compromised by numerous instances of ungainly word choice, ungrammatical constructions and clotted metaphors. For example, this is Monk's observation of a lighted room full of young gang members: "A compressed thing of pain and fury, soon to spin off its spirochetes in erratic orbits to zoom, and eventually falter, in a universe of chaos." Without the continual distractions of sloppy writing and/or editing, this novel would have packed a significantly greater punch. (July)
Kirkus Reviews
Efra¡n Cruzado's traveled a long way from his political roots in Mexico, but not far enough to prevent somebody from tossing a Molotov cocktail through his sleeping daughters' bedroom window. The resulting fire kills Cruzado, his mother, and one of his daughters—and causes ripples to spread through every organization in Los Angeles, from the Rancho Tajuata Tenants' Association (who want to know why the Ra-Falcons, the ex-gang-bangers they'd hired as a security detail, didn't prevent the fire) to the city housing office (desperate to have the Tenants' Association gather enough tenants' signatures to complete the project's application to convert from HUD public housing to co-op ownership). Dissatisfied with the LAPD's reassignation of Lt. Marasco Seguin from Wilshire Division to cover the case, Ra-Falcons chief Antar Absalla hires Seguin's old friend, black shamus Ivan Monk, to get to the bottom of it. And the bottom, as Monk soon finds out, lies deep beneath a tangle of political corruption going back to the Watts riots 30 years ago, with nearly everybody involved having something to hide—beginning with his client, who wastes no time in firing Monk after the occurrence of the first of several casually violent episodes that will send the body count soaring before Monk can help the cops cuff the survivors. Monk's third case (Perdition, U.S.A., not reviewed, etc.) provides enough gritty gossip, blistering action, and trash talk to make real-life L.A. seem comparatively wholesome.
From the Publisher
Praise for Bad Night Is Falling
“Bad Night Is Falling is that rare detective story with a sense of history, of the way the past shapes—and mis-shapes—the present.”
—LA Weekly
“A first-rate example of contemporary noir fiction.”
—The Sunday Telegraph
“Monk’s third case provides enough gritty gossip, glistering action, and trash talk to make real-life LA seem comparatively wholesome.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“The third Monk novel is solid hard-boiled fare that recalls the fatalistic determination of Ross McDonald's Lew Archer.”
—Booklist
“Phillips uses his social backdrop [in Bad Night Is Falling] not for itself or for psychological character study, but to give depth and relevance to a tight thriller.”
—The List (Scotland)
“Makes you realize that politics isn’t just the domain of boring old men—whether you want it or not, inevitably it affects us all.”
—Rap Pages
“Bad Night Is Falling will sate the palates of faithful Ivan Monk fans, while offering an exciting, insightful trek through the mean streets of the City of Angels, often at its worst.”
—Wave Entertainment
Praise for the Ivan Monk books
“In the tradition of Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op, Ivan Monk takes on a corrupt world . . . He makes us feel that the war he’s waging is for our own salvation.”
—Walter Mosley, creator of the Easy Rawlins series
“A landmark novel set during and after the 1992 L.A. riots.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“A crime classic.”
—The Washington Post
“Tough, smart, and unabashedly political. Monk is (to paraphrase basketball star Charles Barkley) a P.I. for the ’90s, and Violent Spring is Phillips’s perfect intro to him.”
—Gar Anthony Haywood, author of the Aaron Gunner mysteries
