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Sam Dean #1
Blood Rights
Black British journalist Sam Dean looks for stories, not missing persons. But a negative bank balance and an old school chum's request for a favor convince him to go searching for the wayward college-age daughter of a conservative Member of Parliament. Her parents suspect that the girl found Prince Charming and ran away to live happily ever after. Only this fairy tale has a black prince, snow-white heroin, and a trail of secrets that leads Sam into the seedy walk-up flats, betting parlors, and back alleys of the underworld...right into the rocky landscape of London's embattled ethnic neighborhoods, and the dark, deadly terrain of the hurting heart...
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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54 people want to read
About the author
Mike Phillips
14 books8 followersMike Phillips was born in Georgetown, Guyana. He came to Britain as a child and grew up in London. He was educated at the University of London and the University of Essex, and gained a Postgraduate Certificate of Education at Goldsmiths College, London.
He worked for the BBC as a journalist and broadcaster between 1972 and 1983 on television programmes including The Late Show and Omnibus, before becoming a lecturer in media studies at the University of Westminster. He has written full-time since 1992. He is best known for his crime fiction, including four novels featuring black journalist Sam Dean: Blood Rights (1989), which was adapted for BBC television, The Late Candidate (1990), winner of the Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction, Point of Darkness (1994) and An Image to Die For (1995). The Dancing Face (1997) is a thriller centred on a priceless Benin mask. His most recent novel, A Shadow of Myself (2000), is a thriller about a black documentary filmmaker working in Prague and a man who claims to be his brother. He is currently working on a sequel.
Mike Phillips co-wrote Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain (1998) to accompany a BBC television series telling the story of the Caribbean migrant workers who settled in post-war Britain. His book, London Crossings: A Biography of Black Britain (2001), is a series of interlinked essays and stories, a portrait of the city seen from locations as diverse as New York and Nairobi, London and Lodz, Washington and Warsaw.
His latest book is Kind of Union (2005).
He worked for the BBC as a journalist and broadcaster between 1972 and 1983 on television programmes including The Late Show and Omnibus, before becoming a lecturer in media studies at the University of Westminster. He has written full-time since 1992. He is best known for his crime fiction, including four novels featuring black journalist Sam Dean: Blood Rights (1989), which was adapted for BBC television, The Late Candidate (1990), winner of the Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction, Point of Darkness (1994) and An Image to Die For (1995). The Dancing Face (1997) is a thriller centred on a priceless Benin mask. His most recent novel, A Shadow of Myself (2000), is a thriller about a black documentary filmmaker working in Prague and a man who claims to be his brother. He is currently working on a sequel.
Mike Phillips co-wrote Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain (1998) to accompany a BBC television series telling the story of the Caribbean migrant workers who settled in post-war Britain. His book, London Crossings: A Biography of Black Britain (2001), is a series of interlinked essays and stories, a portrait of the city seen from locations as diverse as New York and Nairobi, London and Lodz, Washington and Warsaw.
His latest book is Kind of Union (2005).
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 5, 2023
Proof that not every book needs to be in print.
This is a recently re-issued series, written by Phillips, a Black British crime writer from the 80s. Whilst there is lots to admire about it - the picture he draws of 80s London is excellent and he tackles racism in the UK in an interesting way - other elements of the story are very dated and jarring. For example, the female characters are pretty terribly depicted, and the protagonist's interactions with them worse still - he can't describe a single meeting with a woman without first telling you how their breasts sit in their shirt. I also found the detection in the plot pretty pedestrian.
All in all, a bit of a disappointment.
This is a recently re-issued series, written by Phillips, a Black British crime writer from the 80s. Whilst there is lots to admire about it - the picture he draws of 80s London is excellent and he tackles racism in the UK in an interesting way - other elements of the story are very dated and jarring. For example, the female characters are pretty terribly depicted, and the protagonist's interactions with them worse still - he can't describe a single meeting with a woman without first telling you how their breasts sit in their shirt. I also found the detection in the plot pretty pedestrian.
All in all, a bit of a disappointment.
March 15, 2010
A journalist in London is asked by and old frined for help. His employer, a high ranking member of Parliament, has a missing daughter. They do not want a scandal, so no police are wanted.
It does not take long for the fact to emerge that the daughter is hooked on heroin; and there is some descriptions of the London criminal scene.
NOt much of review? You are right. This book I read only a month ago and it left almost no impression on me. It was not a bad book, per se, just totally forgetable. I left it on the bookswap table at work and if not for this review, I'd forget it in two weeks.
The main purpose of this review: a warning not to waste your time. There are hundreds of better mysteries around.
It does not take long for the fact to emerge that the daughter is hooked on heroin; and there is some descriptions of the London criminal scene.
NOt much of review? You are right. This book I read only a month ago and it left almost no impression on me. It was not a bad book, per se, just totally forgetable. I left it on the bookswap table at work and if not for this review, I'd forget it in two weeks.
The main purpose of this review: a warning not to waste your time. There are hundreds of better mysteries around.
November 28, 2017
This is an excellent book, reminding me a lot of the Easy Rawlins books....if they were set in Notting Hill in the 80s instead of LA in the 40s/50s/60s!
There's the same overall situation of a black investigator employed by white upper class people to poke around in the areas of the city they can't get to.
Astonishingly, though, this book was published in 1989...a whole year before the first Easy Rawlins book.
Feels like this book should be much better known/appreciated than it is.
There's the same overall situation of a black investigator employed by white upper class people to poke around in the areas of the city they can't get to.
Astonishingly, though, this book was published in 1989...a whole year before the first Easy Rawlins book.
Feels like this book should be much better known/appreciated than it is.
August 4, 2010
Journalist turned Private detective to find daughter of a rich white man. Lots of racial issues in story. Main character is a bit too smug,even for a private eye. Plotline a bit too loosely strung together. Coincidence and assumptions play a big role.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews