Deborah Grabien

The second JP Kinkaid Mystery chronicle. While My Guitar Gently Weeps opens with Blacklight guitarist JP Kinkaid at home in San Francisco, and engaged to his long-time lover, Bree Godwin. Blacklight's tour has been rough on JP; a heart attack in Boston and a significant ramp-up of his multiple sclerosis have left him more physically fragile than usual. With the tour over, JP is relaxing by sitting in as second guitarist for a new CD by his longtime local friends, the Bombardiers. The Bombardiers are breaking in a new frontman, singer-guitarist Vinny Fabiano. Self-absorbed and abrasive, Vinny is new to the Bay Area music scene; all anyone seems to really know about him is that he has some very expensive instruments, and no obvious source of income to pay for them. A few weeks into the sessions, Vinny is found dead in the Bombardiers' San Francisco rehearsal space, smashed over the head with a custom guitar. The murder leaves the Bombardiers - already in hot water with their record label - without a singer or a regular guitar player. JP, calling in a favour, asks Blacklight's legendary frontman, Malcolm "Mac" Sharpe, to step in and sub for Vinny. But Vinny's cousin and guitar tech is found murdered in Marin County, and Vinny's most valuable guitar - a $75,000 custom Zemaitis pearl-top - has disappeared.

"When the Emir of Manaar offers Blacklight a huge sum to play a New Year's Eve show in his capital city, he's immediately refused. There are good reasons: the band's prior experience with al-Wahid and his decadent twin daughters, the razor-thin timing, a band member's impending rehab. But the Emir makes an offer they can't refuse, and Blacklight prepares to play the biggest live show in their history. From the moment their plane sets down in Manaar, guitarist JP Kinkaid and his wife Bree are aware of disturbing undercurrents beneath the formality and opulence. When their personal equerry is found with his throat slashed just days before showtime, Blacklight's head of security, Patrick Ormand, is barred from the investigation. As the civilised facade around the event begins to crumble, it becomes clear that sending a quarter of a million fans home happy will be a lot simpler than getting themselves out of Manaar alive."--Provided by publisher.

A tragedy in 1481 Cornwall creates an eerie and potentially fatal situation for modern-day musician Ringan Laine, his psychically gifted wife, and his gifted niece.

A cat abandoned in Golden Gate Park quickly learns how to take care of itself, with the help of a street-smart raccoon and another stray cat.

A major and definitive history of the counterculture by our pre-eminent chronicler of the cultural underground.

Ringan Laine has received a prized invitation to perform at the Callowen House Arts Festival and enjoy the hospitality of the host. The only problem is that a 300 year old ghost of a former occupant of the house is still in residence, along with a much more malevalent spirit which seem to have evil intentions towards Ringan's girlfriend. What secrets does the old mansion hold and can they be solved before the dead can cause any more mischief to the living.

"The release of Blacklight's double CD, Book of Days, looks like business as usual. The relaxed tour showcases a revolutionary new set design, as well as Bombardiers keyboard ace Tony Mancuso along as a guest. No one can predict what happens next: the CD goes multi-platinum, generating the need for a very different kind of tour. At first, everything seems fine. It takes a while before guitarist JP Kinkaid realises something very dark is going on: a string of deaths, following Blacklight show nights. Things come to a head when a longtime member of Blacklight's extended touring family is killed. At the band's request, Homicide detective Patrick Ormand investigates, but uncovering the reason behind the deaths may be a lot easier than healing the wounds those deaths have caused"--P. of cover.

This novel is set in Maroko, a sprawling, swampy, crazy and colorful ghetto of Lagos, Nigeria, and unfolds against a backdrop of lush reggae and highlife music, American movies and a harsh urban existence. Elvis Oke, a teenage Elvis impersonator spurred on by the triumphs of heroes in the American movies and books he devours, pursues his chosen vocation with ardent single-mindedness. He suffers through hours of practice set to the tinny tunes emanating from the radio in the filthy shack he shares with his alcoholic father, his stepmother and his stepsiblings. He applies thick makeup that turns his black skin white, to make his performance more convincing for American tourists and hopefully net him dollars. But still he finds himself constantly broke. Beset by hopelessness and daunted by the squalor and violence of his daily life, he must finally abandon his dream. With job prospects few and far between, Elvis is tempted to a life of crime by the easy money his friend Redemption tells him is to be had in Lago's underworld. But the King of the Beggars, Elvis's enigmatic yet faithful adviser, intercedes. And so, torn by the frustration of unrealizable dreams and accompanied by an eclectic chorus of voices. Elvis must find a way to a Graceland of his own making. Graceland is the story of a son and his father, and an examination of postcolonial Nigeria, where the trappings of American culture reign supreme.