The Darkest Hearts

June 1, 2020
This dark, rollicking mystery is the fifth in George's D Hunter series starring a man who has transcended his shady past as a bodyguard to become a musician's talent agent. But D's past keeps waving at him, this time in the form of an arm hooked by some people fishing off Canarsie Pier in Brooklyn. The pier, we learn, was once a famous Mob dumping ground. This particular arm belonged to a disappeared FBI agent and connects to D and his retired hit-man buddy, Ice, with whom D has a very problematic relationship. The discovery of the body part also connects to what happened in the second of the D series, The Plot against Hip Hop (2011). The ins and outs of the plot may be difficult for those new to the series, but D's point of view, his self-confessed vulnerability, and his deep appreciation for music, from R&B on, make this thoroughly satisfying reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

August 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.

June 1, 2020
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.

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