2020-05-18
Worlds collide when a rap star’s manager and a vigilante both have a beef with the same business mogul.
It’s a whole new world for D Hunter, an African American former bodyguard making his way as a talent manager from his hometown of New York to LA, a town that seems like home to no one. Though managing artists like Lil Daye is lucrative for D, the young Atlanta rapper may be more trouble than he’s worth. Not only does Lil Daye have wife Mama Daye at home, but, like other men on the brink of something big, he’s acquired a few extracurricular girlfriends along the way. One of them, Dorita, feeling taken advantage of, makes some demands on Lil Daye and D, then apparently disappears. The deal D is closing for Lil Daye with liquor-company owner Samuel Kurtz should cover whatever payday Dorita requests if Lil Daye has the sense to do what it takes to buy off his troubles. Kurtz is everything D hates about the business—cool, calculating, misogynistic, and maybe even worse to women; D himself respects and admires a strong woman, though his HIV-positive status has made dating tough. Unbeknownst to D, Kurtz is in the crosshairs of Serene Powers, the closest thing to a real-life superhero, who has a very specific job: meting out justice to enemies of women. Though D doesn’t know it, Serene’s vigilantism may be what keeps him safe when things with Kurtz and Lil Daye go south.
A showcase of different approaches to values, business, and hip-hop seen through a lens that feels personal.
08/10/2020
In George’s smart fifth D Hunter mystery (after 2017’s To Funk and Die in L.A.), D, a former bodyguard turned talent manager in L.A., signs hip-hop artist Lil Daye and gets him a lucrative deal to promote a liquor brand being touted by entrepreneur Samuel Kurtz. The deal starts to sour for D when he comes across a transcript of a secretly recorded audiotape in which Kurtz tells an audience of about 20 like-minded business people that hip-hop is merely a way to make money and to destroy Black culture from the inside. Meanwhile, a body discovered near Brooklyn’s Canarsie Pier connects D with a dark, complicated character from his past. To D’s surprise, when an FBI agent wants to speak to D about the body, the agent reveals that he, too, knows about Kurtz’s anti–hip-hop agenda. When D tells Daye what Kurtz is up to, Daye doesn’t want to hear it, and so begins the almost-undoing of D’s career as a manager. Luckily, Serene Powers—an old flame of D’s who enacts justice beyond the reach of the law—helps D get his life back. This action-packed crime novel both educates and entertains. Agent: Sarah Lazin, Sarah Lazin Books. (Aug.)
"This dark, rollicking mystery is the fifth in George’s D Hunter series . . . D’s point of view, his self-confessed vulnerability, and his deep appreciation for music, from R&B on, make this thoroughly satisfying reading."
"George’s passion for, and encyclopedic knowledge of, hip-hop suffuses every word of this smart, stylish novel. Although the author deftly deals with issues of predatory capitalism, government corruption, and the senseless murder of black men by America’s cops, it’s his handling of the tale’s sex trafficking and #MeToo subplots that deserves special acclaim."
"Once again, my brother Nelson George comes through in the clutch like he’s batting clean-up. I’ve known Nelson over thirty years and he has been our cultural storyteller for that length of time. Keep telling. Keep writing our stories. I know I will keep reading them too."
"The undisputed charm of the series is how it not only reveals the souls of those who, in a way, are reminiscent of Iceberg Slim and Donald Goines, but goes further by validating urban America’s importance and reach to a world determined to diminish its creators and its people."
—MIA Magazine
"Former bodyguard D Hunter has moved from New York City to L.A., where he has become a successful talent manager. His past comes back to haunt him when a body discovered off a Brooklyn pier ties him to a retired hit man, and an FBI agent wants to talk with him."
—Publishers Weekly, included in Fall 2020 Announcements (Mysteries & Thrillers)
"Nelson George's The Darkest Hearts: A D Hunter Mystery stars a talent-manager protagonist encountering human trafficking, reactionary politics, and a dead body near the Canarsie Pier."
—Library Journal, selected by Barbara Hoffert as a 2020 Title to Watch
Praise for the D Hunter mystery series:
"D Hunter is as world weary, yet steadfast, as Philip Marlowe, Spenser, Dave Robicheaux, or Easy Rawlins."
—Library Journal (starred review, Pick of the Month)
"[W]ritten in the spirit of authors such as Walter Mosley and Donald Goines...The book blends music from the past with thug appeal of the present to appeal to young and old alike."
—Baltimore Times, on The Lost Treasures of R&B
