Killer Tune

A fifteen-year-old boy firebombs a building as he listens to Vivaldi's Winter Concerto splicing behind a red hot R 'n' B track. A veteran musician is found dead in an alley with the pulse of an old time reggae classic playing in his pocket. Rap sensation Lord Tribulation discovers his new found stardom threatened when he finds himself in the middle of both incidents. His music is accused of inciting the firebombing, and the dead musician is his father. With the beat of the media and government blasting down his neck, LT's search for the truth about his father's death takes him back to an old flame, and on a retro trail to 1976. A time when music was politics and politics was music. A time when the heat-drenched streets of Notting Hill burst into open rebellion. A time that, as LT gets closer to the truth, could lead straight to his own murder . . .

“'With piercing descriptions of London and its intriguing characters the novel is also brilliantly interwoven with musical references that will bring a smile to your face as you read it. There are also twists and turns that will also make you think and spectacular cliff-hangers which make this novel not only an exciting read but a fascinating social and cultural commentary. It is well worth the read and not solely for the music references but also the way in which this story is told. Sad at times but also exhilarating.'--”

As good as it gets . . . Mitchell is English fiction's brightest new voice - Lee Child

KILLER TUNE is a sharply observed, incisive and moving story of radical politics, conflicting loyalties and unfinished business. - Guardian

An interesting, original novel, worth reading, even if you don't get half the references and in real life would block your ears to the noise - Literary Review

Dreda Say Mitchell is an exciting new talent and her second novel, KILLER TUNE, shows her distinctive take on current urban noir.... The narrative throbs with energy and has a refreshing directness - Sunday Telegraph

I look forward to Dreda Say Mitchell's timely new novel, which switches between the contemporary hip-hop scene and the l976 carnival - a time when music was politics and politics was music. - Margaret Busby, Independent

Mitchells' plot is elaborate but tightoy played, with a backbeat of racial abuse. Killer Tune lays the breezy muscial name-checking of Hornby's High Fidelity over a well-crafted murder mystery. - Financial Times

Publishing folklore has it that second novels are generally weaker than their predecessors - not Killer Tune, which is a big step up from Running Hot. It makes it encouragingly clear that Dreda Say Mitchell will be a figure in the crime-writing world for the forseeable future. - Times Literary Supplement

Praise for RUNNING HOT - :

Dreda Say Mitchell was born in London's East End in 1965. She has worked as an education consultant and a teacher in both primary and secondary schools. She has a degree in African history from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and a MA in education studies. Her first novel, RUNNING HOT, was published in 2004 by the Maia Press and won the Crime Writers' Association's John Creasey Memorial Dagger Award for best first novel. She loves to travel, with her hot feet taking her as far afield as Cambodia and Laos, the Lebanon and Ethiopia. She especially loves to relax in Grenada where her family are from. She continues to live in east London with her partner, Tony.

A fifteen-year-old boy firebombs a building as he listens to Vivaldi's Winter Concerto splicing behind a red hot R 'n' B track. A veteran musician is found dead in an alley with the pulse of an old time reggae classic playing in his pocket. Rap sensation Lord Tribulation discovers his new found stardom threatened when he finds himself in the middle of both incidents. His music is accused of inciting the firebombing, and the dead musician is his father. With the beat of the media and government blasting down his neck, LT's search for the truth about his father's death takes him back to an old flame, and on a retro trail to 1976. A time when music was politics and politics was music. A time when the heat-drenched streets of Notting Hill burst into open rebellion. A time that, as LT gets closer to the truth, could lead straight to his own murder . . .

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