Grave Digger Blues

Whether writing novels or playing music, Jesse Sublett channels the world of blues, jazz, surrealism and detective fiction. Grave Digger Blues is a unique hybrid of all the above. Grave Digger Blues is set during the last weeks of the world, boom times for two-legged and four-legged predators alike. Dual protagonists drive the narrative--The Blues Cat, an itinerant, doomed jazz musician, and Hank Zzybnx, a private detective haunted by the benevolent ghost of Marilyn Monroe, fragmented memories of the war in Murderstan, and a grifter mother who hated him before he was born. 


It's a dangerous and strange world. Grizzly bears and alligators have invaded the cities, walking catfish prowl the exurbs, and the best bar in town is the Morgue, so-named because its previous incarnation was the cold storage of the dead; now its industrial sized refrigerator serves an even more noble purpose: sweet relief for the last survivors of the rotting Republic. After the Republican coup, when the wacked out right wingers blew up the White House, the federal government was replaced by a corporate board of directors, but some of the plotters have fallen on hard times. Dick Cheney is a drag queen... New Gingrich is a security guard at WalMart who moonlights with a circus strangling puppies, but the big attraction at the side show is a Reagan-faced monkey who quotes lines from Reagan's most famous speeches. Thus the chapter titled "Morning in America." 

Sublett's writing has been compared to James Ellroy, Michael Connelly and Denis Johnson. The iPad version of Grave Digger Blues showcases what Sublett does best, careening ahead into a strange new/old world, with a bass slung over his shoulder and a .45 automatic in his pocket. This multi-touch iBook has dozens of great, intriguing and sexy photos and drawings, plus music (Sublett's original murder ballads and blues)  and audio versions of several chapters. The Kindle version is text only. Cheer up, it's only the end of the world, and if you look in the right places you can find get a cold beer and some loud music. Everything else was always overrated anyway.