Mojo Hand

A decade past the late '60s setting of Big Rock Beat, former rock star and radio DJ Kihn continues the tale of Beau Young, ex-hippie rock guitarist. This time Beau explores the smoky world of blues music. The year is 1977 and now, as sideman to harmonica-playing legend Oakland Slim, white-boy Beau is learning the ropes when a down-on-his-luck old-time blues great, Art ""Spiderman"" Spivey, is slashed to death in his cheap Chicago hotel. Finding that other blues masters are being killed--Piano Red in St. Louis, and B. Bobby Bostic in Frisco--Beau discovers that an albino guitar player who bought a mummified hand from a voodoo priestess may somehow be connected. Annie Sweeny, the sexy young publisher of Bluesworthy magazine, takes a fancy to Beau and joins the two musicians as they bring their suspicions of a conspiracy to savvy ex-New York City cop George Jones, who is working his first homicide since moving to California. A sleazy record producer and another blues legend, a picker who's reportedly sold his soul to the devil, round out the quirky cast. While much of the prose is clumsy, it's often softened with a harmlessly goofy charm (""Their black mood filled the car like stinky air-conditioning"") and the unabashed author has a gift for conjuring up offbeat characters and kooky plot lines. In his fourth novel, he exhibits obvious respect for the history of blues music, and shows signs of getting his literary act together. (Nov.)