D Hunter Mysteries

National Book Critics Circle Award nominee Nelson George examines New York City's seamy pop music culture through the eyes of HIV-positive bodyguard "D" Hunter. With a client kidnapped, flamboyant music manager Ivy Greenwich enlists security specialist Hunter to deliver the ransom. Impressed with Hunter's street smarts, this old-white-dude-ina- fro hires him to protect teenie bopper Bridgette Hays. As he struggles with his smoldering desire for Bridgette, Hunter tries to discover who is really behind the shrouded threat that menaces Greenwich's clients.

Trap music, human trafficking, malt liquor, and the tyranny of President Trump collide in the fifth installment of Nelson George's D Hunter mystery series. Former bodyguard D Hunter has moved to Los Angeles to become a talent manager. Business is good: he has signed a hot Atlanta rapper named Lil Daye for management and negotiated a lucrative endorsement with a liquor band. However, when D learns of the liquor CEO's unsavory sexual habits and reactionary political views, he worries that he has sold his soul. Back in Brooklyn, a body has been found in the waters near the Canarsie Pier, a body that connects D and the retired hit man Ice to incidents from back in The Plot Against Hip Hop, the second book in the series. Because of this discovery, an FBI agent wants to speak to D, which is making Ice nervous. And Ice is not a man you want worrying about you. Meanwhile in London, Serene Powers, a vigilante and sometime collaborator with D, breaks up a human trafficking ring. In the process, she makes some new, unlikely allies. When Serene returns to the US, 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.

The Plot against Hip Hop is a noir novel set in the world of hip-hop culture. The fatal stabbing of esteemed music critic Dwayne Robinson in a Soho office building is dismissed by the NYPD as a gang initiation. But his old friend, bodyguard and security expert D Hunter, suspects there are larger forces at work.D Hunter's investigation into his mentor's murder leads into a parallel history of hip hop, a place where renegade government agents, behind-the-scenes power brokers, and paranoid journalists know a truth that only a few hard-core fans suspect. This rewrite of hip-hop history mixes real-life figures with characters pulled from the culture's hidden world, including Jay Z, Kanye West, and Russell Simmons.

Professional bodyguard D Hunter takes a gig protecting rapper Asya Roc at an underground fight club in poverty-stricken Brownsville, Brooklyn. Unknown to D, the rapper has arranged to purchase illegal guns at the event. An acquaintance of D's from the streets, Ice, turns out to be the courier. During the exchange a robbery is attempted, and Ice is wounded. D gets Asya Roc to safety but, now in possession of the illicit merchandise, finds himself being chased by two gunmen. When D and his pursuers run into a corrupt detective, a bloody shootout ensues. D, who has just moved back to Brooklyn after decades in Manhattan, finds himself involved in multiple mysteries. Who were the gunmen? Why were they after the guns? Who was being set up-Asya Roc or Ice? Meanwhile, he gets a much-needed paying assignment to track down the rarest soul music single ever recorded. With gentrifying Brooklyn as the backdrop, D works to unravel various mysteries-both criminal and musical-while coming to terms with the failure of his security company and the ghosts of his childhood in "old Brooklyn. " Like its predecessors The Accidental Hunter and The Plot against Hip Hop, The Lost Treasures of R&B uses pop music as the backdrop for a noir-flavored big-city tale.