Rock Critic Murders

Martin Fender #1

by Jesse Sublett

Martin Fender, a bass playing blues musician, semi-legendary in Austin, Texas, moonlights as a skip tracer and trouble shooter in the Live Music Capital of the World in the mid-eighties and nineties. Drawn from the experience and adventures of musician/author Jesse Sublett, the Martin Fender novels take the reader through the back alleys and smoky clubs and joints of this unique time and place. Real musicians like Johnny Reno and Lou Ann Barton make cameo appearances. The gritty, absurd, often amoral world of struggling musicians, drug dealers, drunks and groupies blend to make a musical noir with a blues back beat.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

222 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 29, 1989

About the author

Jesse Sublett is an Austin, Texas musician, painter and author of 13 books, including crime fiction, true crime and history.

Reviews

[Mike]

Comparable to early Pelecanos. Well worth tracking down.

[Toby Galloway]

If you love hard-boiled noirish mysteries, happen to play a little guitar, or have ever been to Austin, this is required reading. Martin Fender is the antihero/protagonist. The live music clubs and surrounding environs of Austin, Texas supply the setting. Check it out.

[RetroHound]

It's the very last paragraph of chapter 5 before anyone dies, as the author does a lot of pontificating about the Austin music scene, the town, music, etc., before anything interesting happens. Finally, about chapter 8 I gave up.

[Micky Parise]

Nice little murder mystery. A little hard to get into the characters and a little technical for the average reader. The plot and ending was rather good. Enjoyable.