ONLY THE WICKED Old Man Spears was a quiet, regular attendee at the Abyssinia Barber Shop, a man nobody paid much attention to until the day he dropped dead, while the other regulars -- including Ivan Monk -- sat around playin' the dozens and cracking jokes on one another. It turns out Spears played in the famed Negro Baseball Leagues along with Monk's cousin, Kennesaw Riles, who had been ostracized by the family for his questionable testimony, which put a political firebrand in a southern prison more than 25 years before. Then Riles dies, but not from natural causes. As Monk becomes immersed in finding out who murdered his cousin, his mother is brutally attacked, and the case turns personal. Events take him to the Mississippi Delta to solve these crimes. There Monk hunts for a killer and crosses paths with the remnants of the racist Southern Citizens League -- while the wind wails Charlie Patton's "Killin' Blues," a mythical lost recording whose lyrics haunt the case. (Book 4 in the Ivan Monk series) Rights Information Publisher: Write Way Publishing, Hardcover (November 2000) Territory: North American Rights Available: Translation; Film/TV Reviews: "Phillips combines politics and storytelling as well as any writer of crime fiction." - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine "Full of neighborhood activity, baseball and jazz history, and general comments on the human condition...fans of African American mysteries will certainly enjoy." - Library Journal "Phillips' Ivan Monk series continues to receive far less attention than it deserves. The author's grasp of Southern California politics is razor sharp, and his evocation of inner-city L.A. is rivaled only by Gar Anthony Haywood in his Aaron Gunner series. Haywood's Gunner and Phillips' Monk, in fact, are similar characters: both fiercely independent African American private investigators, loyal to their families, proud of their community, uncanny in their ability to detect phoniness...Phillips puts the historical material to good use, and he builds suspense effectively...[a] gripping tale starring a genuinely charismatic hero." - Bill Ott, Booklist "[A] fabulous investigative tale" - The Midwest Book Review "If Walter Mosley woke up the genre [of LA-based crime fiction] to the fact that contemporary black writers can jam on noir like juke joints, long shadows, and mean streets as surely as Michael Jordan is the Mozart of the hardwood, then Gary Phillips...should positively nail its devotees to the wall." - The Austin Chronicle "[Phillips] is a natural-born writer, who has clearly studied his predecessors, both literary and political, US and foreign. He writes a tight, unadorned phrase most of the time, which serves to highlight his excursions into traditional snappy dialogue and hard-boiled philosophy." - The Morning Star, England Blurbs: "Ivan Monk's ready to go down fighting, and he makes us feel that the war he's waging is for our own salvation." - Walter Mosley "Gary Phillips is my kind of crime writer and Ivan Monk is my kind of detective...an unbeatable combination." - Sara Paretsky, author of the VI Warshawski mystery series "[Phillips'] is a voice that should be heard and celebrated." - Michael Connelly, bestselling author Purchase at Amazon.com

ONLY THE WICKED

Old Man Spears was a quiet, regular attendee at the Abyssinia Barber Shop, a man nobody paid much attention to until the day he dropped dead, while the other regulars -- including Ivan Monk -- sat around playin' the dozens and cracking jokes on one another.

It turns out Spears played in the famed Negro Baseball Leagues along with Monk's cousin, Kennesaw Riles, who had been ostracized by the family for his questionable testimony, which put a political firebrand in a southern prison more than 25 years before. Then Riles dies, but not from natural causes.

As Monk becomes immersed in finding out who murdered his cousin, his mother is brutally attacked, and the case turns personal. Events take him to the Mississippi Delta to solve these crimes. There Monk hunts for a killer and crosses paths with the remnants of the racist Southern Citizens League -- while the wind wails Charlie Patton's "Killin' Blues," a mythical lost recording whose lyrics haunt the case.

(Book 4 in the Ivan Monk series)

Rights Information

Publisher: Write Way Publishing, Hardcover (November 2000)

Territory: North American

Rights Available: Translation; Film/TV

Reviews:
"Phillips combines politics and storytelling as well as any writer of crime fiction." - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

"Full of neighborhood activity, baseball and jazz history, and general comments on the human condition...fans of African American mysteries will certainly enjoy." - Library Journal

"Phillips' Ivan Monk series continues to receive far less attention than it deserves. The author's grasp of Southern California politics is razor sharp, and his evocation of inner-city L.A. is rivaled only by Gar Anthony Haywood in his Aaron Gunner series. Haywood's Gunner and Phillips' Monk, in fact, are similar characters: both fiercely independent African American private investigators, loyal to their families, proud of their community, uncanny in their ability to detect phoniness...Phillips puts the historical material to good use, and he builds suspense effectively...[a] gripping tale starring a genuinely charismatic hero." - Bill Ott, Booklist

"[A] fabulous investigative tale" - The Midwest Book Review

"If Walter Mosley woke up the genre [of LA-based crime fiction] to the fact that contemporary black writers can jam on noir like juke joints, long shadows, and mean streets as surely as Michael Jordan is the Mozart of the hardwood, then Gary Phillips...should positively nail its devotees to the wall." - The Austin Chronicle

"[Phillips] is a natural-born writer, who has clearly studied his predecessors, both literary and political, US and foreign. He writes a tight, unadorned phrase most of the time, which serves to highlight his excursions into traditional snappy dialogue and hard-boiled philosophy." - The Morning Star, England

Blurbs:
"Ivan Monk's ready to go down fighting, and he makes us feel that the war he's waging is for our own salvation." - Walter Mosley

"Gary Phillips is my kind of crime writer and Ivan Monk is my kind of detective...an unbeatable combination." - Sara Paretsky, author of the VI Warshawski mystery series

"[Phillips'] is a voice that should be heard and celebrated." - Michael Connelly, bestselling author

Purchase at Amazon.com