Jamaica Blue: Library Edition

Caribbean Mystery #1

by Don Bruns

Against the exotic backdrop of Jamaica and Florida, charismatic rock reporter Mick Sever investigates a reggae band's involvement with the violent deaths of young girls in this gripping mystery of music and murder.

Genres: Mystery

Audio Cassette

First published October 10, 2002

About the author

Don Bruns is a writer, novelist, musician, songwriter, painter, cook, advertising executive and stand up comic who has no idea what he wants to be when he grows up. He's the author of nine books and was editor of the mystery/music anthology A Merry Band Of Murderers.

Don's published novels cover two series. One, a Caribbean thriller collection and two, the Stuff series, a humorous look at two twenty-four year old guys in South Florida who start their own detective agency and end up neck - deep in trouble.

Jamaica Blue, Barbados Heat, South Beach Shakedown, St. Barts Breakdown and Bahama Burnout make up the Caribbean books. The Stuff series consists of Stuff To Die For, Stuff Dreams Are Made Of, Stuff To Spy For, and Don't Sweat The Small Stuff. Bruns is currently working on the fifth Stuff book, Too Much Stuff.

He currently resides on Florida's West coast.

Bahama Burnout/ Finalist, National Best Books Award - Mystery/Suspense 2009
South Beach Shakedown/ Winner National Best Books Award -Fiction/Suspense 2006
South Beach Shakedown/ Winner, Indie Excellence, 2006 Award - Mystery/Suspense
South Beach Shakedown/ Winner USA Book Award, 2006 - Mystery
Stuff Dreams Are Made Of/ Winner Indie Excellence Award 2009 - Mystery/Suspense
Stuff Dreams Are Made Of/IndieBound Notable, October 2008
Stuff Dreams Are Made Of/Winner Florida Writer's Association -
Stuff To Die For/ Starred review Booklist

Reviews

[Paul A Gross · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Qualified Review

It just seemed to not have a sooth, connected plot jumping from one venue to the next. The reading was wearing, far from a smooth page turner. Having lived in Miami and being a frequent traveler to both the Keys and Jamaica, I did enjoy the connections. It does not rate above two stars like a five star Stuart Woods book.

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

And as the tale unfolded, it contained all the essential ingredients. Sex, drugs, rock and roll. Now, with faint rumblings that murder might be following the Lament's tour, he had decided to stick with the band for another couple of days.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jamaica Blue is the first book by Don Bruns in the Mick Sever series. Mick is a journalist who writes about the music industry. When Bobby Vane calls him to come down to Jamaica to do a story on the "next big thing" in music, Mick finds himself investigating a series of murders in addition to Derrick Lyman, Bobby Vane's "next big thing." At first the murders all occurring after Derrick's concerts in Jamaica is racked up to coincidence. But when Derrick and his band come to America and another murder occurs, no one is calling it coincidence anymore.

This book has such a realistic look into the music industry that it literally made me cringe. I would never want to have any connection to it. More than once I found myself saying, "ewww!" Bruns brings that realism from his own experiences in the "biz."

Mick's the protagonist, and there are times that you really want to like him because there seems to be something good buried in all the layers. But then the annoying womanizing side shows itself. As his ex-wife constantly reminds him, he's never grown up. As a female listening to this book, I empathized with his ex-wife, Ginny. Ginny is a great female character: smart, strong and of course very good looking. A womanizing man in the music business could never be married to anyone who wasn't drop-dead gorgeous, right? This book is an interesting one in that I'm sure it's a completely different book for each reader based on their gender and age. Remember, a lot of one's connection with a book involves what you bring to the book from your own experiences.

I listened to Jamaica Blue on audio book. It was read by Don Bruns and he did an o.k. job. However, he doesn't have much in the way of distinctive voices for characters. And at times it was hard to tell who was saying what since every sentence doesn't end in "he said"/"she said"/etc, the way the Spenser novels do. And there were several Jamaican characters; he didn't include any kind of dialect for them. Occasionally there was a little, but it wasn't consistent at all. This is just a personal irritation, but Bruns pronounces the word "a" as a long a most of the time. It's very rare for the word "a" to sound correct pronounced that way, and I couldn't force myself not to pay attention to it. I'm quirky; I'll admit it! Reading back over this it sounds pretty bad, but I will tell you that I have started the second book in the series on audio book, so it can't be all that bad or I wouldn't be willing to listen to a second one!

Overall, this was an enjoyable novel with a distinctive voice. It's the first crime fiction book I've read that was centered around the music industry, so that unique factor is a definite plus.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

11/03/07
TITLE/AUTHOR: JAMAICA BLUE by Don Bruns
RATING: 4.5/B+
GENRE/PUB DATE/# OF PGS: Mystery/2002/310 pgs
SERIES/STAND ALONE: 1st in Mick Sever music journalist sereis
TIME/PLACE: Early 2000's/Jamaica & Florida
CHARACTERS: Mick Sever/music journalist
FIRST LINES: The boatman had come and gone, peddling his drugs to the adventurous tourists in the midday sun. He'd paddled his mud brown canoe up to the sugar-sand beach, bellowing to the sun worshipers, "Who wants to buy some?"

COMMENTS: This has been in Mt. TBR for yrs and author will be back at MOTB 11/02 so...thought I'd read one of his books, finally. Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll and murder set in the tropics! Mick Sever is a music journalist and is there at the onset of the newest Reggae band -- Derek & The Laments. He's w/ them in Jamaica and Miami -- but this may be the end of the tour because after every concert a female fan is murdered. Great Debut!

[Hrn1947 · Rating 2 out of 5]

first book in the series. When i read about it, rock & roll, tropical setting, mystery, it had everything i usually love. not this time. too many holes. too much past history that keeps cropping up without explaination. I'll read the sequel, but if it's not better that's it. the main focus of the last part of the story, ginny, never gets resolved. you never find out what happened.

[Julesy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not finish this book. Narration was awful and story was very crude.