The Jukebox Kings

This superior crime novel set in 1960s Detroit, from Allyn (Motown Underground) stars Irish Mick Shannon, a former prize fighter and ex-felon. Mick stumbles into a new career when elderly mobster Moishe Abrams uses him to collect the “vig” (the interest paid to a moneylender) owed him in the neighborhood known as 8 Mile, “the border between the dark heart of Detroit and the whiter suburbs.” On one such errand, Mick makes a deal with blues singer Martika Daniels that allows her to run the record studio Black Kat Recordings and later involves him in the scramble to get Black Kat music played on the jukeboxes that Abrams controls in Detroit’s Darktown. Mick must contend with members of the black community who distrust whites, as well as with Abrams’s notorious boss, John Luca. Allyn is solid on the infighting for mob control and on the racial discord that led to the riots of 1967, but he’s superb on every detail about the black music scene, from the clubs and makeshift recording studios to the stars, both recognized and unrecognized. [em](Mar.) [/em]