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Nanette Hayes Mysteries #1
Rhode Island Red
Nanette is doing OK playing her saxophone out on the street. Sure her boyfriend Walter doesn't think it's any way for a black woman with a Masters degree in French to carry on, but she's happy. Then things start happening. An undercover cop dies in her apartment. A strange man wants her to explain the mystery of Charlie Parker. Walter wants to get married. And who or what is Rhode Island Red? Fast, sweet and funny, Rhode Island Red is a classic New York thriller, the story of a Spike Lee heroine in a Woody Allen world.
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
104 people are currently reading
4078 people want to read
About the author
Charlotte Carter
9 books73 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Charlotte Carter is the author of an acclaimed mystery series featuring Nanette Hayes, a young black American jazz musician with a lust for life and a talent for crime solving. Coq au Vin, the second book in the series, has been optioned for the movies. Her short fiction has appeared in a number of American and British anthologies, including John Harvey's Blue Lightning. The first in a new series set in Chicago against the tumultuous backdrop of the 1960s will be published in late 2002 - early 2003. Charlotte Carter has lived in the American Midwest, North Africa and France. She currently resides in NYC with her husband.
Charlotte Carter is the author of an acclaimed mystery series featuring Nanette Hayes, a young black American jazz musician with a lust for life and a talent for crime solving. Coq au Vin, the second book in the series, has been optioned for the movies. Her short fiction has appeared in a number of American and British anthologies, including John Harvey's Blue Lightning. The first in a new series set in Chicago against the tumultuous backdrop of the 1960s will be published in late 2002 - early 2003. Charlotte Carter has lived in the American Midwest, North Africa and France. She currently resides in NYC with her husband.
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September 29, 2021
3.5 stars ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫
Quick thoughts:
How about this gorgeous retro cover design? Rhode Island Red is the first book in the Nanette Hayes Mysteries series.
Nan loves jazz and is a busker performer. She’s having relationship trouble with her boyfriend, Walter, and to top it off, when she helps a fellow busker friend out by offering him somewhere to stay, he is murdered in her kitchen.
This is a slim, atmospheric novel with a rich jazz backdrop. It will be interesting to see how the series develops.
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
Quick thoughts:
How about this gorgeous retro cover design? Rhode Island Red is the first book in the Nanette Hayes Mysteries series.
Nan loves jazz and is a busker performer. She’s having relationship trouble with her boyfriend, Walter, and to top it off, when she helps a fellow busker friend out by offering him somewhere to stay, he is murdered in her kitchen.
This is a slim, atmospheric novel with a rich jazz backdrop. It will be interesting to see how the series develops.
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
January 23, 2015
from https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2015/...
First published in 1997, Rhode Island Red is the first in a series about Nanette Hayes, twenty eight year-old woman trying to make ends meet in New York. Open Road Media is re-releasing the book in e-version, and I have to applaud their decision. Of course, I’m a natural sucker for the stories of New York, as well as stories that are underrepresented, so perhaps I’m not the best person to judge.
Nanette graduated from Wellesley with a degree in French and a minor in music, and is now trying to earn enough money for rent. It wasn’t a problem until her boyfriend Walter Michael Moore decided to move out, taking “four fifths of the rent and groceries.” Playing the sax on the street earns some tip money, but also provides a way for her to cope: “Good thing I had on those dark glasses. All those melancholy, lost, private things going through my head. Things I wouldn’t want anybody to read in my eyes.” Another sax player begs her for an opportunity to crash at her place that night and despite her misgivings, she allows him the use of an extra futon. She wakes up shivering with cold only to discover her guest is dead–and when she checks the body, she discovers he was an undercover officer. The discovery sets off an interesting chain of events that leads her to track down Sig’s blind girlfriend, also a busker, while attempting to avoid the violent Detective Leman.
The plot is interesting, if somewhat confusing by the end. Nanette is very much an amateur sleuth and her minor investigative attempts seem littered with assumptions. When the story sidesteps into a romance, I found myself sighing, but remained interested enough for the outcome to keep reading. Still, lessons are learned, which is really what I require if I’m going to follow a character any length of time: “In my dumbass attempts to do right, I’d managed to cut a pretty wide swath through the endless possibilities of wrong.”
Characterization is excellent, and full of the same kind of surprises found in real life. Hayes comes across well, as someone I would have known in the late twenties, post-college and waking up to the gulf between her dreams and reality. She reminisces about her past in a way that is well-integrated with the story but gives a sense of who she is. She’s a confident, kind person who thinks she’s street-wise, an easy character to root for. Side characters are also well done, with vivid little sketches that bring them alive: “The map of the colored man in America was written on his face. Yes, the black past was there, but there was something else… Aha. So that was what I’d glimpsed in his face: he was mean.”
Woven through the mystery is Nanette’s love for jazz and music, from Coltrane to Davis to Monk: “There’s Parker and Rollins and Coltrane… well, the list goes on endlessly. I think it’s a good thing to have an open ended pantheon. When it comes to the piano, though, it’s Monk whom I have accepted as my personal savior.”
All that said, one of the best things about this mystery is the way it weaves Nanette’s life into the story. She touches on her preference for her bald head, interracial relationships, the experience of a black American dealing with the police–and the experience of a black policeman dealing with racism–reactions of people downtown listening to her street music, her upbringing, and struggles with the landlord in an organic, human way that says, “here is my experience.” For white Americans that want to believe that they “don’t see color,” it provides insight into the layers of difference.
I enjoyed it and will certainly check out the next. Although I strongly recommend it with some background jazz and just enough light to read by.
Thanks to Open Road Media for sending an e-copy my way.
July 27, 2021
Charlotte Carter. We are lucky to be alive in this time when publishers are doing the right thing for themselves AND for us by republishing terrific, under-read authors. Charlotte Carter is new to me but she is one of the best writers for a kind of hard-boiled mystery reminiscent of Raymond Chandler and the kind of glamour and won’t-look-away savvy of Nina Simone and James Baldwin.
Nanette Hayes is the series. Described as “a Grace Jones lookalike in terms of coloring and body type (she has the better waist, I win for tits)”, Nan is, when we meet her, busking on NYC streets with a saxophone, supplementing part-time work as a translator, French to English.
As far as I can tell, the series is only three novels long, but Carter has such a delicious and particular voice, you’re going to want to read all of this in a rush of indulgence. The first book in the series, Rhode Island Red, comes out July 27, just in time for long hot days in the hammock. August and September bring the last two, Coq Au Vin and Drumsticks. It’s like eating bonbons—very hard to resist.
First published in 1997, Rhode Island Red is written from a Black woman’s perspective and set in New York City just after stop-and-frisk was added to our lexicon. Cops were hated then, maybe even more than now? Even the title is a mystery; we don’t even know what the title means until close to the end but if you were to guess…
Nanette longs for France but grew up in the States as a child prodigy in maths, languages and spelling, of all things. One day another sax street player—a White man a little older than she—shows up needing a place to stay…and who ends up dead within hours.
It’s a complicated story, as it always must be when a stranger gets killed inside one’s own apartment. Nan calls the cops, only to have them question her motivation in bringing him home to her apartment. It’s a good question, one that Nanette will spend the rest of the story asking herself.
Carter wasn’t ahead of her time. She was playing old tunes in the 90s, but they were the anthem of the century. In a sense, she was closing the joint. We as a country are just catching up with her now. Radical. Real. Rhode Island Red.
Nanette Hayes is the series. Described as “a Grace Jones lookalike in terms of coloring and body type (she has the better waist, I win for tits)”, Nan is, when we meet her, busking on NYC streets with a saxophone, supplementing part-time work as a translator, French to English.
As far as I can tell, the series is only three novels long, but Carter has such a delicious and particular voice, you’re going to want to read all of this in a rush of indulgence. The first book in the series, Rhode Island Red, comes out July 27, just in time for long hot days in the hammock. August and September bring the last two, Coq Au Vin and Drumsticks. It’s like eating bonbons—very hard to resist.
First published in 1997, Rhode Island Red is written from a Black woman’s perspective and set in New York City just after stop-and-frisk was added to our lexicon. Cops were hated then, maybe even more than now? Even the title is a mystery; we don’t even know what the title means until close to the end but if you were to guess…
Nanette longs for France but grew up in the States as a child prodigy in maths, languages and spelling, of all things. One day another sax street player—a White man a little older than she—shows up needing a place to stay…and who ends up dead within hours.
It’s a complicated story, as it always must be when a stranger gets killed inside one’s own apartment. Nan calls the cops, only to have them question her motivation in bringing him home to her apartment. It’s a good question, one that Nanette will spend the rest of the story asking herself.
Carter wasn’t ahead of her time. She was playing old tunes in the 90s, but they were the anthem of the century. In a sense, she was closing the joint. We as a country are just catching up with her now. Radical. Real. Rhode Island Red.
July 26, 2021
Rhode Island Red is the first instalment in the Nanette Hayes Mysteries series, and in this irreverent and original crime novel, a troop of adventures narrated in a humorous way follow one another to the brightest jazz rhythm. The endearing antiheroine who suffers from them is the young Nanette Hayes, a bohemian and amateur detective, who dreams of being sexier and becoming a black jazz star. At the moment, she is an expert in playing the tenor sax in the streets of New York and in looking for endless problems in the underworld, where she rubs shoulders with the most diverse and bizarre human fauna, enjoying life until a police officer of the secret appears assassinated in his house.
She is suddenly thrown on top of her by a perverse policeman, a strange and threatening couple who keep her under surveillance and a jazz-loving gangster who plays on her feelings. The body count rises and Nanette begins to track down one of jazz's great enigmas: Rhode Island Red. A compelling mystery novel that delves into the world of jazz music and how it is intimately and inextricably linked to African-American fiction and a raw and thought-provoking read. Despite its brevity, it manages to pack a lot of heart and nostalgia within its page count taking you on a richly atmospheric journey around the New York scene.
She is suddenly thrown on top of her by a perverse policeman, a strange and threatening couple who keep her under surveillance and a jazz-loving gangster who plays on her feelings. The body count rises and Nanette begins to track down one of jazz's great enigmas: Rhode Island Red. A compelling mystery novel that delves into the world of jazz music and how it is intimately and inextricably linked to African-American fiction and a raw and thought-provoking read. Despite its brevity, it manages to pack a lot of heart and nostalgia within its page count taking you on a richly atmospheric journey around the New York scene.
January 16, 2015
Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley.
This book is the bomb. Honestly, it was one of those grab you by the throat and doesn’t let you go type of things. The reader is immediately in sync with the narrator, in this case Nanette and anything that distracts the reader from reading the book is unwelcome and should take a long walk off of a short pier. Seriously, I wanted to do physical harm to anything that interrupted reading this. I almost intentionally missed my bus because I can’t read on the bus without puking my guts out.
But I didn’t.
Nanette is a street musician in NYC, she plays the sax. She’s not the best, but does seem the worst either. She is educated and speaks French. She embraces her sexuality. Her voice is the best thing going for this novel (and the novel has many things going for it). Then a man ends up dead in her apartment.
He turns out not to be quite what he appeared to be.
Nanette then finds herself caught in a mystery that is constantly, but believably, shifting involving cops, money, jazz, and the mob.
But wow, this book. Interracial relationships are deal with, love is dealt with, black women's relationships with black men are dealt with, and interactions with the police are dealt with. More importantly, Nanette is one of those heroines who actually have women friends who are truly friends with each other. They are really sisters in every good sense of the word except by blood.
And thank god, a certain male character did not become a love interest because that would have been so Hollywood and such a letdown if he had.
Thank god, as well, that Nanette’s inner goddess isn’t so much a goddess as a conscience and has a far better name than “Inner Goddess”.
But the best part of Nanette is that she kicks ass in a totally believable way. She is not super woman. There is a scene when she is alone in her apartment, dress in a somewhat revealing nightgown (and what nightwear isn’t somewhat revealing outside of children’s’), surrounded by male police, and the reader feels her tension and fear. Furthermore, her reaction comes across as believable in terms of being African –American and a woman. That scene, the power of that scene. God, Massai warrior over Kate Moss any time.
Then there are the love passages to jazz music. If you don’t like jazz, read this book and you will be converted I swear.
And then there is the love story which ends . . . wait can’t tell you. Just read this okay?
This book is the bomb. Honestly, it was one of those grab you by the throat and doesn’t let you go type of things. The reader is immediately in sync with the narrator, in this case Nanette and anything that distracts the reader from reading the book is unwelcome and should take a long walk off of a short pier. Seriously, I wanted to do physical harm to anything that interrupted reading this. I almost intentionally missed my bus because I can’t read on the bus without puking my guts out.
But I didn’t.
Nanette is a street musician in NYC, she plays the sax. She’s not the best, but does seem the worst either. She is educated and speaks French. She embraces her sexuality. Her voice is the best thing going for this novel (and the novel has many things going for it). Then a man ends up dead in her apartment.
He turns out not to be quite what he appeared to be.
Nanette then finds herself caught in a mystery that is constantly, but believably, shifting involving cops, money, jazz, and the mob.
But wow, this book. Interracial relationships are deal with, love is dealt with, black women's relationships with black men are dealt with, and interactions with the police are dealt with. More importantly, Nanette is one of those heroines who actually have women friends who are truly friends with each other. They are really sisters in every good sense of the word except by blood.
And thank god, a certain male character did not become a love interest because that would have been so Hollywood and such a letdown if he had.
Thank god, as well, that Nanette’s inner goddess isn’t so much a goddess as a conscience and has a far better name than “Inner Goddess”.
But the best part of Nanette is that she kicks ass in a totally believable way. She is not super woman. There is a scene when she is alone in her apartment, dress in a somewhat revealing nightgown (and what nightwear isn’t somewhat revealing outside of children’s’), surrounded by male police, and the reader feels her tension and fear. Furthermore, her reaction comes across as believable in terms of being African –American and a woman. That scene, the power of that scene. God, Massai warrior over Kate Moss any time.
Then there are the love passages to jazz music. If you don’t like jazz, read this book and you will be converted I swear.
And then there is the love story which ends . . . wait can’t tell you. Just read this okay?
March 9, 2024
A delightful detective whodunnit! Nanette Hayes is tall, curious, smart and creative. She flirts with the underbelly of the jazz world in her city as she does all she can to make rent and solve a murder mystery.
January 31, 2022
RTC
A super fast read but I don't think the story will stick with me for long.
A super fast read but I don't think the story will stick with me for long.
February 3, 2024
1990s nyc noir + heaps of jazz with smooth prose to match
February 20, 2022
RHODE ISLAND RED
Charlotte Carter
RHODE ISLAND RED is the first in the series of Nanette, but I read the series backward and so is the last one for me. I will miss this series as I have come to really enjoy Nan and her mess-ups, flaws, and relationships.
You got to feel for a girl that can't get her relationships with men exactly right! Her picker is just broken and this book is no different. From Carl to Walter, she is just the worst judge of men. But a really good person! Even the police know that because they don't arrest her for the murdered guy on her kitchen floor! And to make it worst, the guy is actually an undercover cop.... she gets herself into all kinds of trouble trying to do the right thing about the money she found and about a legendary sax that is supposed to be made of gold! YEAH RIGHT!
This is a 4 star read, SO LONG NAN... be cool!
4 stars
Happy Reading!
Charlotte Carter
RHODE ISLAND RED is the first in the series of Nanette, but I read the series backward and so is the last one for me. I will miss this series as I have come to really enjoy Nan and her mess-ups, flaws, and relationships.
You got to feel for a girl that can't get her relationships with men exactly right! Her picker is just broken and this book is no different. From Carl to Walter, she is just the worst judge of men. But a really good person! Even the police know that because they don't arrest her for the murdered guy on her kitchen floor! And to make it worst, the guy is actually an undercover cop.... she gets herself into all kinds of trouble trying to do the right thing about the money she found and about a legendary sax that is supposed to be made of gold! YEAH RIGHT!
This is a 4 star read, SO LONG NAN... be cool!
4 stars
Happy Reading!
January 21, 2024
Great characterization/style, annoying mystery. The kind of serial book that won’t even slightly tie up ends book by book. I was so offended when the ending immediately tried to bait me into starting the next that I refused to read the next. Not worth it
March 29, 2022
What a breath of fresh air Rhode Island Red by Charlotte Carter was. This is the first book in her Nanette Hayes mystery series. There are currently 4 books in the series and I have the 2nd one on my bookshelf. :0)
Nanette Hayes is a jazz-loving, saxophone playing, beautiful, intelligent woman making her living playing on the street in New York and sometimes translating works between French and English. Her best friend, Aubrey, is a stripper and successful businesswoman. She has an on-again, off-again relationship with Walter. At the moment it's off.
Nanette meets Sig, another street musician, looking for a place to crash and she lets him sleep on her floor of her flat. The next morning she finds him dead, stabbed in the throat. It turns out that Sig is an undercover cop. (Is he also a corrupt cop?) Well, Nanette finds $50,000 stuffed in her saxophone....
This begins a fascinating, entertaining, great story as Nanette gets involved with a Greek fella who wants her to teach him everything about Charlie (Bird) Parker... oh and also romances her like she's never been romanced before. The bodies begin to multiply, dead bodies that is... Nanette is harassed by Sig's partner, Det Leman Sweet, angry that his partner is dead and maybe because he might have been corrupt. Nanette begins to conduct her own investigation. What about this money? What is Rhode Island Red? Who is Wild Bill? Who is Henry for that matter?
It's all excellent. Nanette is such a wonderfully sexy character, full of passion, jazzy, a full-figured, wonderful African-American woman, who you just want to meet and talk about jazz or anything. The story is peopled with wonderful characters; Aubrey, her boss, the gay strip club owner and Mob guy, Thom, even Nanette's mom who makes just a couple of appearances. I enjoyed this so very much. It flowed smoothly, had sufficient action to satisfy me and like I said a couple of times, there is an underlying sexiness to the whole thing. If you are also trying to explore African - American fiction as well, you might like to try this. Being an old white male, I can't attest to its authenticity, but either way, I loved it and will be enjoying more of Carter's writing. (4.5 stars)
Nanette Hayes is a jazz-loving, saxophone playing, beautiful, intelligent woman making her living playing on the street in New York and sometimes translating works between French and English. Her best friend, Aubrey, is a stripper and successful businesswoman. She has an on-again, off-again relationship with Walter. At the moment it's off.
Nanette meets Sig, another street musician, looking for a place to crash and she lets him sleep on her floor of her flat. The next morning she finds him dead, stabbed in the throat. It turns out that Sig is an undercover cop. (Is he also a corrupt cop?) Well, Nanette finds $50,000 stuffed in her saxophone....
This begins a fascinating, entertaining, great story as Nanette gets involved with a Greek fella who wants her to teach him everything about Charlie (Bird) Parker... oh and also romances her like she's never been romanced before. The bodies begin to multiply, dead bodies that is... Nanette is harassed by Sig's partner, Det Leman Sweet, angry that his partner is dead and maybe because he might have been corrupt. Nanette begins to conduct her own investigation. What about this money? What is Rhode Island Red? Who is Wild Bill? Who is Henry for that matter?
It's all excellent. Nanette is such a wonderfully sexy character, full of passion, jazzy, a full-figured, wonderful African-American woman, who you just want to meet and talk about jazz or anything. The story is peopled with wonderful characters; Aubrey, her boss, the gay strip club owner and Mob guy, Thom, even Nanette's mom who makes just a couple of appearances. I enjoyed this so very much. It flowed smoothly, had sufficient action to satisfy me and like I said a couple of times, there is an underlying sexiness to the whole thing. If you are also trying to explore African - American fiction as well, you might like to try this. Being an old white male, I can't attest to its authenticity, but either way, I loved it and will be enjoying more of Carter's writing. (4.5 stars)
August 13, 2021
This was a delightful mystery (full of death and anguish but that's par for the course). Set in 1990s New York, the best part of this was being reminded of solving a mystery before cell phones and regular use of the internet. Nanette uses her wits, the public library and an answering/messaging service!
I had NO idea where this was going...a saxophone? Piles of cash? Dead bodies? Motive?
I already purchased the next two in this series.
I had NO idea where this was going...a saxophone? Piles of cash? Dead bodies? Motive?
I already purchased the next two in this series.
March 19, 2023
Nanette Hayes, es un personaje curioso: niña prodigio en su infancia y con una licenciatura en literatura francesa a cuestas a sus 28 años es una desempleada que malvive tocando el saxo tenor en las calles de New York por simple amor a la música, pues ella abiertamente reconoce que talento no tiene…Nam -para sus amigos- es bohemia, excéntrica, mercurial, superficial e irreverente, con un especial don para meterse en líos se ve mezclada en un enredo en el que interactúa con una serie de personajes de lo más variopinto dejando uno que otro cadáver atrás y teniendo como banda sonora de esta historia la cadenciosa y envolvente música del Jazz y la gran manzana como escenario.
Nanette pasea al lector por la ciudad de los rascacielos: de Manhattan a Tribeca, nos describe la Estación Central, los jardines privados de Gramercy Park y la biblioteca publica de Nueva York. Nos habla de su francofila, su relación con su madre, su mejor amiga, su ex novio Walter, de su conciencia (a la que ella llama Enestine) de su amor por el jazz… nos da sus opiniones sobre la maternidad y el matrimonio…Nan se pierde en un sin fin de generalidades que no aportan nada a la trama detectivesca llegando a pensar que la misma es solo un vehiculo del cual se vale la autora para contar al lector en clave de humor negro la peculiar visión que una afroamericana de clase media tiene de ella misma y su entorno a finales de la década de los 90’s.
Si el lector es un purista del género negro criminal, seguro que esta historia le resultará decepcionante…pero si lo que se busca es pasar un rato entretenido con un personaje diferente. Puede ser una lectura simpática para un fin de semana.
Un par de citas:
“Pero si soy tu esclavo...
-¿Sabes, Siggy? Dado que soy una persona de color, ésa no es mi palabra preferida del vocabulario inglés.”
“...porque así me lo pedía mi conciencia, a la que llamo Ernestine. Mi lado hipócrita que me aconseja tú-a-tu-rollo-liberado-pero-luego-reza-para-no-consumirte-en-el-infierno merece un nombre así de cursi. No es fácil ser una libertina cuando cuatrocientos años de historia te han preparado para ocupar tu puesto en el banco de la iglesia."
Nanette pasea al lector por la ciudad de los rascacielos: de Manhattan a Tribeca, nos describe la Estación Central, los jardines privados de Gramercy Park y la biblioteca publica de Nueva York. Nos habla de su francofila, su relación con su madre, su mejor amiga, su ex novio Walter, de su conciencia (a la que ella llama Enestine) de su amor por el jazz… nos da sus opiniones sobre la maternidad y el matrimonio…Nan se pierde en un sin fin de generalidades que no aportan nada a la trama detectivesca llegando a pensar que la misma es solo un vehiculo del cual se vale la autora para contar al lector en clave de humor negro la peculiar visión que una afroamericana de clase media tiene de ella misma y su entorno a finales de la década de los 90’s.
Si el lector es un purista del género negro criminal, seguro que esta historia le resultará decepcionante…pero si lo que se busca es pasar un rato entretenido con un personaje diferente. Puede ser una lectura simpática para un fin de semana.
Un par de citas:
“Pero si soy tu esclavo...
-¿Sabes, Siggy? Dado que soy una persona de color, ésa no es mi palabra preferida del vocabulario inglés.”
“...porque así me lo pedía mi conciencia, a la que llamo Ernestine. Mi lado hipócrita que me aconseja tú-a-tu-rollo-liberado-pero-luego-reza-para-no-consumirte-en-el-infierno merece un nombre así de cursi. No es fácil ser una libertina cuando cuatrocientos años de historia te han preparado para ocupar tu puesto en el banco de la iglesia."
January 30, 2015
https://koeur.wordpress.com/2015/01/3...
Publisher: Open Road Media
Publishing Date: January 2015
ISBN: 9781497691827
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Rating: 2.1/5
Publisher Description: Saxophonist Nanette Hayes, a majestic five-foot-ten-inch Grace Jones lookalike with hot style, lives for the music of her jazz forebears. Self-taught Nan is no Charlie Parker, but she dreams big. She performs regularly—on the sidewalks of New York City. Not exactly the Village Vanguard, but it pays the bills in ways that her master’s degree in French does not. Mostly, Nanette just tries to stay cool in the face of the worst kinds of hardship. Recently, this has taken the form of getting dumped—hard—by her live-in boyfriend, Walter.
Review: Meh…..A little too inner-dialogue heavy for me.
Publisher: Open Road Media
Publishing Date: January 2015
ISBN: 9781497691827
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Rating: 2.1/5
Publisher Description: Saxophonist Nanette Hayes, a majestic five-foot-ten-inch Grace Jones lookalike with hot style, lives for the music of her jazz forebears. Self-taught Nan is no Charlie Parker, but she dreams big. She performs regularly—on the sidewalks of New York City. Not exactly the Village Vanguard, but it pays the bills in ways that her master’s degree in French does not. Mostly, Nanette just tries to stay cool in the face of the worst kinds of hardship. Recently, this has taken the form of getting dumped—hard—by her live-in boyfriend, Walter.
Review: Meh…..A little too inner-dialogue heavy for me.
July 19, 2016
A noir set in New York with an intelligent Sax musician as a protagonist. Nanette Hayes is in her late twenties and plays jazz on the streets to make ends meet. She gets entangled in a crime full with corrupt cops, charming mob enforcers, moody bar tenders and confusing motivations.
Nanette makes a wonderful narrator as she touches upon her love for French, music, her shaved head, interracial relationships, being a black woman, the treatment she gets when confronted by cops and the way every decision of hers is turned against her. She is funny, witty, sarcastic and her observations on general populace is fascinating.
A light and an enjoyable read.
Nanette makes a wonderful narrator as she touches upon her love for French, music, her shaved head, interracial relationships, being a black woman, the treatment she gets when confronted by cops and the way every decision of hers is turned against her. She is funny, witty, sarcastic and her observations on general populace is fascinating.
A light and an enjoyable read.
February 6, 2017
what i did enjoy about this book: the musical references, and the potential for taking the story to france. the main character had potential too, and perhaps she gets better over the course of the series? but i just don't feel invested enough to find out, unfortunately. i found things pretty clunky with this story.
January 4, 2019
Five Round Burst (pointblankpodcast.com)
Rhode Island Red by Charlotte Carter
All right, so my first read for five-round burst is Charlotte Carter's Rhode Island Red. This is the first of the Nanette Hayes mysteries, and it was put out by Warner Books in 1997.
I found out about Charlotte Carter from The Blacklist, which is a book column written by Michael A. Gonzales that examines out-of-print books written by (mostly) African-American authors.
Now in this book we meet Nanette Hayes -- a down-on-her-luck prodigy -- a hip African-American woman with a Masters in French getting by in 1990s New York by playing the saxophone for change.
Things gets complicated when she helps out a musician named Sig. She invites him to crash at her place, and the next morning she finds Sig's dead body in her living room and his saxophone stuffed with 60,000 dollars. Turns out he was an undercover cop.
Who killed Sig?
Where did the money come from?
And what is this Rhode Island Red that everybody's after?
Enter Nanette Hayes, amateur sleuth.
We follow her through the steamy streets of New York as she seeks to solve the mystery. We meet cops, hoodlums, mafiasos, and Nanette's ex-boyfriend Walter.
The story is fast-paced, action-packed, and funny. Think Chester Himes with a Digable Planets soundtrack
Now, Nanette Hayes is a bit of a Mary Sue, but I liked the story and plan to read the second one Coq au Vin, when I can. Not quite a deadly blow to the head by a solid gold saxophone, but certainly a hit. Check it out.
Rhode Island Red by Charlotte Carter
All right, so my first read for five-round burst is Charlotte Carter's Rhode Island Red. This is the first of the Nanette Hayes mysteries, and it was put out by Warner Books in 1997.
I found out about Charlotte Carter from The Blacklist, which is a book column written by Michael A. Gonzales that examines out-of-print books written by (mostly) African-American authors.
Now in this book we meet Nanette Hayes -- a down-on-her-luck prodigy -- a hip African-American woman with a Masters in French getting by in 1990s New York by playing the saxophone for change.
Things gets complicated when she helps out a musician named Sig. She invites him to crash at her place, and the next morning she finds Sig's dead body in her living room and his saxophone stuffed with 60,000 dollars. Turns out he was an undercover cop.
Who killed Sig?
Where did the money come from?
And what is this Rhode Island Red that everybody's after?
Enter Nanette Hayes, amateur sleuth.
We follow her through the steamy streets of New York as she seeks to solve the mystery. We meet cops, hoodlums, mafiasos, and Nanette's ex-boyfriend Walter.
The story is fast-paced, action-packed, and funny. Think Chester Himes with a Digable Planets soundtrack
Now, Nanette Hayes is a bit of a Mary Sue, but I liked the story and plan to read the second one Coq au Vin, when I can. Not quite a deadly blow to the head by a solid gold saxophone, but certainly a hit. Check it out.
August 17, 2021
3.5 stars. Originally published in 1997, I'm glad to see that Vintage Crime/Black Lizard is re-releasing the three books in this series. Nanette Hayes lives in New York and gets by translating some obscure French works and by playing jazz on her saxophone on the streets -- and also with some help from Walter, her on again/off again boyfriend. When he moves out, taking his wallet (and 4/5 of the rent money with him), she isn't exactly sorry to see him go, but money is tight. She takes pity on a fellow busker who pledges his love for her on the street and offers him a place to stay for the night. He ends up murdered on her kitchen floor . . . and it also turns out he was an undercover cop. From there, we get a mix of hard-boiled crime with an amateur sleuth. Nanette gets more wrong than she gets right - but it is a blast to watch her sort it all out. “In my dumbass attempts to do right, I’d managed to cut a pretty wide swath through the endless possibilities of wrong.” The writing in here is fun and engaging with the right amount of snark and sarcasm for me - and was enough to offset for me the fact that I felt like the mystery elements were a little convoluted. Bonus points for you as a reader if you love jazz music - it permeates every aspect of this novel.
February 16, 2022
Charlotte Carter really amps up the camp in this series (written in the 1990s!) about a street-busking, sex-positive, murder mystery-solving, Francophile foodie and sax player named Nanette. The plot was interesting and had a number of twists and turns but the real charmer is the voice of Nanette: her spunk, charm and passion for life's small pleasures really carried the normally low-brow mystery genre (sorry if this is a hot take!) into something truly unique and interesting. Light enough to be a beach read but it's still got some subversive takes on complex topics like race and gender.
Would recommend if you like: delightful descriptions of food, quirky female leads, jazz music.
Would recommend if you like: delightful descriptions of food, quirky female leads, jazz music.
September 8, 2022
Molt divertit. La protagonista desprèn magnetisme a galledes. M'ha cansat que parlin tant de música, això sí.
May 2, 2023
3.5 stars - I enjoyed reading this, especially all the jazz references and the atmospheric nature of the writing.
August 29, 2025
this was a good quick mystery. loved the fmc and the title just scratches the right itch in my brain. also loved how music was incorporated throughout the book and in the mystery without losing itself. definitely going to read the second book in the series.
May 3, 2025
This book was recommended at my local book store. They were spot on, what a terrific read. Tight writing style with no wasted words, intriguing descriptions of people/places. Interesting storyline.
March 18, 2023
A lovely little slice of life. Nanette very quickly grew on me and I loved the images of gritty 90s New York.
May 11, 2023
It’s always a thrill to discover a new character that you love, a new series that you can’t wait to continue. This is one of those. Nan is a beautiful, complex character: street musician, poet, dreamer. Crazy circumstances blow up her life and lead to a much needed cosmic house cleaning… fantastic mystery!
July 2, 2020
enjoyable, breezy mystery with a jazz theme in the Spenser or Bernie Rhodenbarr line.
September 15, 2021
https://openbooksociety.com/article/r...
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra
Rhode Island Red by Charlotte Carter is a mystery, infused with LOTS of jazz musician references. The jazz theme was what caught my interest as well as being a mystery. Rhode Island Red was originally published in 1997 and is the first in a series with Nanette Hayes, a young woman trying to make ends meet in New York as the protagonist.
The story begins with Nanette Hayes playing her saxophone on the sidewalks of New York City. She holds a degree in French with a minor in Music from Wellesley (scholarship all the way). However, she is not taking in a lot of money, when a smart-mouthed young man starts off by insulting her playing, and then moves on to declaring his (platonic) love for her. He says his name is Sig, and it turns out he’s looking for a place to crash for the night. Against her better judgment Nan agrees to let him stay the night in her apartment. And then it all begins…. With the murder of Sig right in her living room. What’s a girl to do but figure out how and why? There is more than meets the eye to this story and as you read it, you will discover some of the interesting twists and turns (I cannot ruin it for the next reader ☺).
I loved all the musical references, be it specific artists (like Parker, Rollins, Miles, Coltrane, etc. and her personal saviour – Thelonious Monk) to the fact that Nan busked on the street corners in New York. I must admit – I love her list of artists – some of my favourites as well!
I also liked Nan’s bestie – Aubrey. And the antagonism between Detective Leman Sweet and Nan did add to my enjoyment of the book. Nan had to work hard to prove herself to the detective. I think one of the passages I liked best was when she was describing Aubrey and herself:
“Aubrey was…well, not smart. Dumb was the blunt, casually cruel work the kids used. Strange how she turned out to be so pulled together. While I tend to be in tatters a good once a day. Where did that child prodigy shit get me?”
Much to my chagrin unfortunately, I did not enjoy the writing style of this book. I just found it did not flow particularly well for me. Additionally, another editing run through might (read would) have been helpful to remove many of the errors I came across. The pace of the book was a tad bit slow for my tastes. I did finish the book as I did enjoy all of the musical references… so much so that I did turn on some jazz while reading ☺
If you like mysteries with a bit of romance with a female protagonist, then Rhode Island Red might just be the book for you. It is a relatively quick read, so nothing ventured, nothing gained. I leave the rest of the books in the series for others to read.
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra
Rhode Island Red by Charlotte Carter is a mystery, infused with LOTS of jazz musician references. The jazz theme was what caught my interest as well as being a mystery. Rhode Island Red was originally published in 1997 and is the first in a series with Nanette Hayes, a young woman trying to make ends meet in New York as the protagonist.
The story begins with Nanette Hayes playing her saxophone on the sidewalks of New York City. She holds a degree in French with a minor in Music from Wellesley (scholarship all the way). However, she is not taking in a lot of money, when a smart-mouthed young man starts off by insulting her playing, and then moves on to declaring his (platonic) love for her. He says his name is Sig, and it turns out he’s looking for a place to crash for the night. Against her better judgment Nan agrees to let him stay the night in her apartment. And then it all begins…. With the murder of Sig right in her living room. What’s a girl to do but figure out how and why? There is more than meets the eye to this story and as you read it, you will discover some of the interesting twists and turns (I cannot ruin it for the next reader ☺).
I loved all the musical references, be it specific artists (like Parker, Rollins, Miles, Coltrane, etc. and her personal saviour – Thelonious Monk) to the fact that Nan busked on the street corners in New York. I must admit – I love her list of artists – some of my favourites as well!
I also liked Nan’s bestie – Aubrey. And the antagonism between Detective Leman Sweet and Nan did add to my enjoyment of the book. Nan had to work hard to prove herself to the detective. I think one of the passages I liked best was when she was describing Aubrey and herself:
“Aubrey was…well, not smart. Dumb was the blunt, casually cruel work the kids used. Strange how she turned out to be so pulled together. While I tend to be in tatters a good once a day. Where did that child prodigy shit get me?”
Much to my chagrin unfortunately, I did not enjoy the writing style of this book. I just found it did not flow particularly well for me. Additionally, another editing run through might (read would) have been helpful to remove many of the errors I came across. The pace of the book was a tad bit slow for my tastes. I did finish the book as I did enjoy all of the musical references… so much so that I did turn on some jazz while reading ☺
If you like mysteries with a bit of romance with a female protagonist, then Rhode Island Red might just be the book for you. It is a relatively quick read, so nothing ventured, nothing gained. I leave the rest of the books in the series for others to read.
March 25, 2015
Before I discuss the book contents I want to give my opinion of the book’s style. If I didn’t know better I would think that Carter was trying to write a satire on mystery books. The people in the story, especially Nanette Hayes, are so childish and two dimensional that they come off as cartoonish. On the second hand, the story and the plot and everything else that goes with it, seem to come out of the Nancy Drew genre. Am I being too hard on the book, I don’t think so, but that’s just my opinion.
NOTE: so why did I read this book? I was given an invitation (via NetGalley) by the publisher to do so and review.
OK, so Nanette is a street musician in New York City. She looks like Grace Jones and plays the saxophone. One day somebody dumps a wad of money into her case ($60,000) . Nanette isn’t your normal street busker, oh no, she has a Master’s in French and lives with her straight lace middle class boyfriend in a ‘mean’ neighborhood. At this time she has broken up with her boyfriend for the upty-seventh time. She allows another street musician to crash at her ‘pad’ one night because he is homeless.
In the morning, she wakes up to find the ‘homeless’ guy is dead with an ice-pick (an ice- pick, where do you get an ice-pick these days) in his throat. When she checks for an ID it turns out he’s an undercover NYC cop. Well she’s got the money, so she might as well spend it, right? Sure no one could be looking for it. The dead guy must have fallen down on the ice-pick, wow talk about bad luck.
So, now the book really gets silly as the ‘mystery’ has something to do with a saxophone that was given to Charlie Parker by a mobster to play at his wedding. The sax is made of gold and a million dollar stash of heroin is in the bell. It was stolen the same night as the wedding. (As if the heroin would be any good after all these years.) And now the book gets really silly. I don’t want to discuss it. Needless to say I wasn’t thrilled by the book. It might be good for ‘tweens’ except for the drugs, sex and bad language. Oh well.
Zeb Kantrowitz zworstblog.blogspot.com
NOTE: so why did I read this book? I was given an invitation (via NetGalley) by the publisher to do so and review.
OK, so Nanette is a street musician in New York City. She looks like Grace Jones and plays the saxophone. One day somebody dumps a wad of money into her case ($60,000) . Nanette isn’t your normal street busker, oh no, she has a Master’s in French and lives with her straight lace middle class boyfriend in a ‘mean’ neighborhood. At this time she has broken up with her boyfriend for the upty-seventh time. She allows another street musician to crash at her ‘pad’ one night because he is homeless.
In the morning, she wakes up to find the ‘homeless’ guy is dead with an ice-pick (an ice- pick, where do you get an ice-pick these days) in his throat. When she checks for an ID it turns out he’s an undercover NYC cop. Well she’s got the money, so she might as well spend it, right? Sure no one could be looking for it. The dead guy must have fallen down on the ice-pick, wow talk about bad luck.
So, now the book really gets silly as the ‘mystery’ has something to do with a saxophone that was given to Charlie Parker by a mobster to play at his wedding. The sax is made of gold and a million dollar stash of heroin is in the bell. It was stolen the same night as the wedding. (As if the heroin would be any good after all these years.) And now the book gets really silly. I don’t want to discuss it. Needless to say I wasn’t thrilled by the book. It might be good for ‘tweens’ except for the drugs, sex and bad language. Oh well.
Zeb Kantrowitz zworstblog.blogspot.com
February 1, 2015
Nanette Hayes is playing her saxophone on a New York City street, and not taking in a lot of money, when a smart-mouthed young man starts off by insulting her playing, and then moves on to declaring his (platonic) love for her. He says his name is Sig, and it turns out he's looking for a place to crash for the night. Against her better judgment Nan agrees to let him stay the night in her apartment.
She does make him sleep on the couch.
In the very early morning, she wakes up to a very cold apartment.
Her door is open, and Sig is on the living room floor, stabbed to death with an ice pick. And it turns out he's a cop named Charlie Conlin, who has been working undercover investigating a criminal scheme targeting street musicians. That's all bad enough, but after the cops and the body are gone, Nan pulls out her saxophone, and finds that Sig/Charlie had stuffed $60,000 into it before he died.
She has no idea how complicated her life is about to get.
This is a nicely intricate mystery, with bonuses if you're a lover of jazz. Her on-again/off-again boyfriend Walt, Sig's blind street musician girlfriend and her guide dog, a charming, older Greek fan of American jazz, and a broken-down old trumpeter called Wild Bill are all involved in the mystery of a vanished saxophone once owned by Charlie Parker. They're sometimes working together, sometimes at cross-purposes, and they don't always know who is double-crossing them. The same goes for Nanette; she has no idea who is telling her the truth and who is lying or even setting her up.
I was totally absorbed and read this in a day.
Recommended.
I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
She does make him sleep on the couch.
In the very early morning, she wakes up to a very cold apartment.
Her door is open, and Sig is on the living room floor, stabbed to death with an ice pick. And it turns out he's a cop named Charlie Conlin, who has been working undercover investigating a criminal scheme targeting street musicians. That's all bad enough, but after the cops and the body are gone, Nan pulls out her saxophone, and finds that Sig/Charlie had stuffed $60,000 into it before he died.
She has no idea how complicated her life is about to get.
This is a nicely intricate mystery, with bonuses if you're a lover of jazz. Her on-again/off-again boyfriend Walt, Sig's blind street musician girlfriend and her guide dog, a charming, older Greek fan of American jazz, and a broken-down old trumpeter called Wild Bill are all involved in the mystery of a vanished saxophone once owned by Charlie Parker. They're sometimes working together, sometimes at cross-purposes, and they don't always know who is double-crossing them. The same goes for Nanette; she has no idea who is telling her the truth and who is lying or even setting her up.
I was totally absorbed and read this in a day.
Recommended.
I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
June 18, 2011
The New York in which amateur jazz saxophonist Nanette Hayes lives, is one flooded with romance, jazz and 60,000 dollars worth in cash hidden in her saxophone. She didn’t hide it in there herself. Sig did, the undercover cop who spend the night with her and is found dead the next morning, with an ice pick sticking out of his neck.
Nanny gets scared of the bloody body in her apartment, she gets intimidated by the detective who was Sig’s partner, but above all else, she changes from amateur musician to amateur sleuth as she starts following the trail of the money and that of Sig, trying to figure out what the heck just happened with her life.
The most enjoyable aspect of ‘Rhode Island Red’ is how Charlotte Carter introduces Nanette to the reader. Judging from the first chapter, comparing her to a cool Grace Jones look-a-like, Hayes would be ideal to turn into this hardboiled gumshoe. But to tell the truth, Nanny isn’t all that tough or all that cool or all that hard. She’s just smart enough to think her way through each chapter. But she’s also extremely naïve, falls in love way too easy and – best of all – knows all this. Which makes her an enormously enjoyable lead character in this type of genre.
But as tight and well put together as Hayes is, so shapeless and drained of mystery is the plot revolving around her. It’s sweet, sad and – as far as the character of Nanette is concerned – fresh in all the right places, but reaching that ending where everything comes together, there’s nothing truly memorable or original. An OK read, but nothing to get excited about.
Nanny gets scared of the bloody body in her apartment, she gets intimidated by the detective who was Sig’s partner, but above all else, she changes from amateur musician to amateur sleuth as she starts following the trail of the money and that of Sig, trying to figure out what the heck just happened with her life.
The most enjoyable aspect of ‘Rhode Island Red’ is how Charlotte Carter introduces Nanette to the reader. Judging from the first chapter, comparing her to a cool Grace Jones look-a-like, Hayes would be ideal to turn into this hardboiled gumshoe. But to tell the truth, Nanny isn’t all that tough or all that cool or all that hard. She’s just smart enough to think her way through each chapter. But she’s also extremely naïve, falls in love way too easy and – best of all – knows all this. Which makes her an enormously enjoyable lead character in this type of genre.
But as tight and well put together as Hayes is, so shapeless and drained of mystery is the plot revolving around her. It’s sweet, sad and – as far as the character of Nanette is concerned – fresh in all the right places, but reaching that ending where everything comes together, there’s nothing truly memorable or original. An OK read, but nothing to get excited about.
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