Barbados Heat - Don Bruns

Barbados Heat is the second book in the Mick Sever series by Don Bruns. In this installment, Mick is headed off on a vacation when Congressman Robert Shapply is murdered. Ordinarily this probably wouldn't be a big deal to Mick Sever. But Robert Shapply also happens to be the father of Sever's former best friend AND he's the man who stole money from Sever and his former wife, Ginny. So, when Sever is offered a job to cover the story of Shapply's murder, he jumps at the chance. It doesn't take Sever long to start connecting the congressman's death to the death of a 13-year-old girl twenty years earlier, and when he does he discovers that he may have become the next murder target.

As with Jamaica Blue, Barbados Heat is a look at the "ugly" side of the music business. Barbados Heat deals more with the folks behind the scenes of the music, however. And they are ugly, too. One element of this novel that really sat uncomfortably with me was the rumored "relationship" between an older man and the 13-year-old murder victim. It is regularly referred to as an "affair." However, anything sexual in nature between an adult and a 13-year-old is NOT an affair.

A new character that appears in this novel is Tony Beauregard, a.k.a. T-Beau. His character, a former rapper/biker/music manager lends some additional dimension to the investigative team. Ginny Sever also returns. Together they chase down the 20-year-old murder from Washington D.C. to Sarasota, Florida to Barbados in hopes that they will find the clues to solve Shapply's present-day murder.

Like Jamaica Blue, I listened to this book on audio. It is also read by Bruns in the same style as Jamaica Blue. You can see my review of Jamaica Blue here.