I wrote:
"I recently read that Bill Moody's latest Evan Horne mystery,
Looking For Chet Baker, will be issued with a CD single of
Baker playing, if memory serves me, These Foolish
Things."
Mark responded:
How is this series? Is it hardboiled? Are they set in
contemporary times? For instance, will the new book be
dealing with the actual Chet Baker, which means going back a
bit, or will the search be a metaphoric one? I guess I'm
asking if this is a jazz version of the Toby Peters Hollywood
books by Stuart Kaminsky?
Mark, Evan Horne is a jazz pianist who injures his hand in
auto accident and can't play. He reluctantly becomes an
investigator in book one (Solo Hand) and books two, three and
four focus on mysteries related to dead jazz greats Wardell
Gray (Death of a Tenor Man, Clifford Brown (The Sound of a
Trumpet) and Charlie Parker (Bird Lives). I imagine Moody
will tie his mystery somehow to the death of Chet Baker many
years ago in France. Tenor player Gray was found dead outside
Las Vegas in 1955 while Brown was killed years ago. I don't
have The Sound of the Trumpet handy to check the
circumstances. The books are set in contemporary times and I
wouldn't call them hardboiled, but I have enjoyed them.
The day before the discussion started about Bogie PaperJacks,
I picked up a copy of a PaperJacks titled Wind Chill by Nick
O'Donohoe only because it is set in Minneapolis. The P.I. is
Nathan Phillips (not the former mayor of Toronto) and he has
a cat named Marlowe. Can anyone tell me if my 50-cent
investment is worth reading?
Kent Morgan
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