Description:

Someone is about to make a killing in the music industry. Why would songwriting legend Gideon Pike mysteriously disappear just when he is about to turn his 30-year career into a multi-million dollar profit? Music columnist Mick Sever is back in Don Bruns' third suspense masterpiece. This time he's looking for answers and his missing friend in the gritty backrooms of South Beach's biggest nightclubs, dodging suicide speedboats and running from sniper fire. What surfaces is how the major players in the music industry are not making the headlines, they're just pulling the strings that create them. Hit it right and the royalties, even someone else's, can rake in millions for the rest of your life. The key is finding Gideon before Korean mobster Jimmy Shinn does. Jimmy is ready to cash in on the one secret that will bring Gideon to his knees and strip away what's left of his career, his fortune, and his life. Whoever gets to Gideon first will either save him or pull the trigger. The deadly race is on.

From Publishers Weekly

Bruns substitutes exotic locale for suspense in his lukewarm third beach-based mystery (after 2003's Barbados Heat) featuring music journalist Mick Sever. Based in Chicago, Mick heads to Miami when he hears from his ex-wife, Ginny, that her client, legendary rocker Gideon Pike, has vanished. Pike's sudden disappearance leads Ginny, who's editing his forthcoming memoirs, to fear for his safety. Mick has saved Gideon's life before, and he turns detective once again to track him down, a quest that leads him to a seamy underworld of Korean gangsters and recording industry corruption. Bodies, gunfire and betrayals abound, but superficial characters and flat writing make for an unconvincing depiction of Sever's transformation from scribe to action hero. *(Sept.) *
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From Booklist

In his third outing, rock-music journalist and amateur sleuth Mick Sever looks into the disappearance of Gideon Pike, whose legendary status comes as much from his offstage shenanigans as from his performing skills. Pike, who is writing his autobiography, has a fistful of enemies, any of whom might want him permanently silenced. Bruns, a veteran musician, clearly knows the music biz, and readers are sure to enjoy the behind-the-scenes material. Others may be less thrilled with the author's narrative style, which can swing dramatically from smooth to clunky. David Pitt
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