The Darkest Hearts
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A P.I.-turned-talent manger’s new client leads him into dangerous territory in this hard-boiled novel by the author of To Funk and Die in L.A.
Former bodyguard D Hunter has moved to Los Angeles to become a talent manager, and business is good. He has signed a hot Atlanta rapper named Lil Daye and negotiated a lucrative endorsement with a liquor band. However, the liquor CEO’s unsavory sexual habits and reactionary political views lead D to wonder if he’s sold his soul.
Back in Brooklyn, a body has been found in the waters near the Canarsie Pier. It connects D and retired hit man Ice to incidents from back in The Plot Against Hip Hop, the second book in the series. Now, an FBI agent wants to speak to D, which makes Ice nervous. And Ice is not a man you want worrying about you.
Meanwhile Serene Powers, a vigilante and D’s sometime collaborator, breaks up a human trafficking ring in London. When she returns to the States, D asks her for assistance with a sensitive and volatile matter in Atlanta involving Lil Daye, his wife, his mistress, and a thug on his payroll named Ant . . .
The Darkest Hearts reflects the challenges of being a Black businessperson in an era when the rules of entrepreneurship are constantly shifting beneath an increasingly polarized political environment.
Praise for The Darkest Hearts
“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.” —Spike Lee, filmmaker
“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.” —Mystery Scene Magazine
“Smart . . . This action-packed crime novel both educates and entertains.” —Publishers Weekly
“We’re big fans of music mysteries here at CrimeReads, so I'm psyched for the new Nelson George . . . A complex mystery that should serve as the perfect quarantine distraction.” —CrimeReads, One of CrimeReads’ 10 Novels You Should Read This August and
One of the Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2020
“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.” —Booklist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
