Drumsticks - Hardcover

Charlotte Carter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0892966793 ISBN 13: 9780892966790

Publisher: Mysterious Press, 2000

Synopsis

Back in Manhattan after splitting with her boyfriend, Nanette is determined to drink herself into the ground, but her new voodoo doll--a gift from a friend--is suddenly turning her life around

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Reviews

African-American sax artist Nanette Hayes, a tough New Yorker, returns for her third gig (following Rhode Island Red and Coq au Vin). Nan is as low as she can go--hitting the booze hard, losing contact with friends and drifting until the gift of a voodoo doll seems to change her luck. An unexpected check and a chance to perform regularly at an upscale jazz club rouse her to seek out the voodoo doll's creator, an older woman named Ida Williams, whom she invites on impulse to hear her play. Her good luck ends in opening-night gunfire that leaves Ida dead. The old woman's checkered past, a vendetta among rap artists and an elaborate scam combine to thrust Nan into a maelstrom of violence. In search of answers, Nan finds that she needs her friends--Aubrey, a beautiful exotic dancer, and Justin, a white, witty drag queen. She also needs the help of both her high school principal father, who left her mother to marry a much younger white woman, and gruff NYPD detective Leman Sweet, who proves to be an unexpected guardian angel. Underneath the street trappings and the jazzy, bold sexuality, Nan seems a nice middle-class gal seeking bohemia who instead finds adventure and romance. If Carter doesn't quite convince with this brash first-person narrative, she does manage to entertain. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sassy jazz saxophonist Nanette Hayes has not returned from Paris (Coq au Vin, 1998) in triumph. Her lover has ditched her, she's broke with no gig in sight, and she's boozing it up to beat the band. But when a pal gives her a voodoo doll for luck, her life perks up: Her drinking tapers off; money flows in; and she's hired to fill in at a jazz club. In thanks, Nan invites the dollmaker, Ida Williams, to her opening night, but someone has nastier plans for poor Ida, who's gunned down on the premises. Nan, in a final gesture of gratitude, wants to know why. Her search leads her to a rich kid turned rapper turned dead; his upscale black folks and his white girlfriend; a photograph of Ida with a mystery man; past and present con games; and, yes, much worse. Nan, her friend Aubrey with the bodacious ta-tas, campy Justin and his beloved boyfriend, and their hip-hop patter almost compensate for a plot that lumbers from coincidence to coincidence like a sloppy drunk in pursuit of a taxi. Nan deserves a better storyline, something on a par with her sax riffs. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Emerging from an alcoholic, self-destructive phase, black jazz saxophonist and part-time sleuth Nanette Hayes (Coq au Vin, 1999) attributes her new positive attitude to a rag-doll street vendor. When someone shoots the old woman--who turns out to have several identities--Nan feels that the New York cops may neglect the murder case of just one more poor black person, so she investigates on her own. She winds up helping police, using her own educated, upper-middle class family connections for access to clues. Upbeat, tough, sexy, and wryly humorous, Nan is an appealing series heroine supported by equally unusual but compelling faithful friends. Don't miss this one.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Mysterious Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0892966793
• ISBN 13: 9780892966790
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 213