St. Barts Breakdown: A Mick Sever Mysteryvolume 2

Another seemingly effortless page-turner from Bruns! I really liked his previous novel STUFF TO DIE FOR, and now I have to go back and catch up on the other Mick Sever novels. He's created a fantastic foil for Sever in the supremely nasty Danny Murtz, a record producer who has a nasty habit of pistolwhipping people to death. Fortunately for him, he's alarmingly rich, so he gets away with it. The ever-cranky Sever shows up in the island paradise of St. Bart to interview Murtz, only to find things are not so paradisiacal. Threats are made, hotel rooms are ransacked, cars are blown up - and no one seems to care. When it comes down to the showdown between Sever and Murtz, Bruns ratchets things up to a fever pitch and the ending somehow manages to be both inevitable and surprising. Another win for Bruns.

Finally: someone weirder than Phil Spector...Danny Murtz is a Spectorian record producer whose made a career of stealing other people's songs and turning them into piles of money, drugs and guns. In a haze, he's killed a girlfriend or three along the way, but he's always had his trusty attorney to make things better. The problem - the walls might be closing in. A girlfriend who got away, a cop with the missing persons bureau and an experienced music journalist are all getting close to taking him down. Set amidst the rotting-fruit humidity of the Caribbean island of St. Bart's, where money can make everything okay, Bruns has created a showdown where the devil has taken over the Garden of Eden and is causing all kinds of trouble. Bruns is always a capable guide through these locales, and he doesn't disappoint here.

Rock n' roll and mystery - a beautiful combination. Don Bruns, obviously a music aficionado in addition to a strong writer, rips through this yarn about the ugly things that happen in beautiful places with gusto. He's concocted Danny Murtz, an insane music producer with buckets of money and hits, along with a penchant for guns (sound familiar?) and placed him against Mick Sever, a journeyman rock journalist who's been around long enough to know a good story when he hears one. He's also been up to his bad knees in trouble, experience which stands him in good stead on the "perfect" island of St.Bart's, where "no murders happen." Unfortunately, as long as Murtz is on the island, that's not true, but his money insulates him from the law. Sever has to take on Murtz, his bulldog attorney, the island's laissez-faire attitude and his own demons to find the truth. Bruns has a way with quick, rising action and keeping those pages turning. Great stuff.

Don Bruns plays this genre like the blood-stained Stratocaster on the cover - St. Bart's Breakdown is fast, mean and riveting. He pits a hard-bitten music journalist, Mick Sever, who has caroused with Rod Stewart and The Who, against Danny Murtz, an evil music producer with a lot of platinum records and skeletons in his closet. He's got a thing for cocaine, guns and young women, a few of who have gone missing over the years. Mick's editor smells a story and sends Mick down to St. Bart to get an interview out of Murtz. Within a day, Sever's car has blown up, his hotel room has been ransacked, and he's met a mysterious woman who may or not be after the same thing he is. The plot rockets along like a Keith Moon drumline and Sever is an appealing character, grizzled and dogged to the point of walking into the lion's den to get the story.

This is not best-selling author Don Bruns' first novel--and I hope it isn't his last. This guy can tell a story, filling it with characters--some you love, others you despise. He writes "good and evil" with the best of them. Set on St. Barts island, the main bad guy is a smarmy, disgusting but oh so successful music producer/song writer, Danny Murtz. Danny likes to steal songs from others, and he likes to hit women while in a drug or alcohol-induced stupor. He is NOT a nice guy. Mick Sever, entertainment writer for the Chicago Tribune, has been sent to St. Barts to interview Danny Murtz about his successful career--and if he can get some information about Murtz's role in several missing girls, so much the better. Sever soon learns to look out, look behind you, check under your car, duck when you hear gunfire, listen to all the stories, but believe and trust no one. Many people are out to get Murtz, including is own staff with whom he has a mutual hate relationship, including his fix-it-all-and-make-it-go-away attorney Harvey, and his long-time assistant Nancy. In the book, St. Barts police looks the other way. Accidents happen, but there are NO murders on this tourist-dependent island. Just when you figure out who is doing what, you are wrong. Sever's life is threatened once, twice and more, but he doesn't leave the island because he has to know. The bonus his publisher promised is secondary to the truth. If you are used to reading mysteries that are as much thrillers/suspense, you may be used to reading about men hurting women. If not, be aware because on St. Bart and elsewhere, Murtz does it, and graphically. Celebrity Murtz does not have to follow rules. Sound familiar? The author received several honors, including the 2007 Indie Excellence Award for South Beach Shakedown, another book in this mystery series that also contains Jamaica Blue, and Barbados Heat. He also wrote Stuff to Die For. He is a former musician who worked with major acts--so he knows the biz. Armchair Interviews says: If you are looking for a book that you read in one sitting, this is it. It is a 5-star "wow" read!