Drumsticks

Nanette Hayes Mysteries #3

by Charlotte Carter

Nanette Hayes is sassy and brassy, as befits a statuesque street sax player improvising her way through Manhattan, mystery, and murder. After an April in Paris she'd rather forget, Nanette is back in New York, looking for gigs and staking out her favorite corners (without telling her mother, who thinks Nanette is teaching French at NYU). She's hit rock bottom and is crankily content to stay there, when a gift "mojo doll" from Harlem folk artist Ida Williams starts turning her luck around. But when Ida is suddenly shot to death in the middle of Nanette's new uptown gig, the guilt-stricken saxophonist wants to know why. Her investigation takes her from Ida's suspiciously checkered past to the recent murder of Black Hat, a rising young rap star; as Nanette struggles to make sense of these discordant notes, she and her closest friends find themselves whistling in an increasingly threatening dark.

Charlotte Carter, who introduced Nanette in Rhode Island Red and followed it up with Coq au Vin, has a hot property in her heroine, whose independence and wry self-deprecation echo Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone (N Is for Noose, O Is for Outlaw). Nanette's gleeful sense of the absurd will also have readers thinking of Janet Evanovich's New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum (High Five, Hot Six).

Unfortunately, Carter can't quite match Grafton's ability to weave tricky and disturbing plots, nor Evanovich's razor-sharp, dead-on prose. Drumsticks will satisfy readers eager for more of Nanette's quick tongue and keen wit, but its incoherent plot and half-hearted attention to secondary character development too often detract from its heroine's obvious appeal. Turn off the logic switch in your brain, then, and read for the sheer pleasure of Nanette's voice. --Kelly Flynn

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, New York, Crime, African American

196 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 8, 2000

About the author

Librarian 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.

Reviews

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

DRUMSTICKS
Charlotte Carter

I was completely taken by surprise with this one. I mean with the title of Drumstick, I really thought it was going to be something like a marching band book, but it wasn't.

This is a series about a female horn blower named Nanette and 22 years later, I am only the seventh person to write a review? That just seems unreasonable as good as this was. The setting is New York prior to 911, of course. Nanette has returned to the states from Paris where her aunt was killed and she broke up with her then-boyfriend. Now she is playing on the streets as a buster and just barely making it. She also has been residing in the bottom of a whiskey glass at night and spending her days with Gin and tonic.

But her luck is about to change when she gets a gift of a voodoo doll until the old lady that made the doll is found dead. It seems to me that Nanette is a better investigator than a musician, but she seems to hold her own with both. I loved the grittiness of the dialogue, the vivid descriptions of New York, and the twist and turns in the mystery itself.

Despite being old, it is well worth the read.

4 stars

Happy Reading!

[Lourdes Alejandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Y bueno... Muy bien todo el desenlace y toda la historia, pero el final me dejó en suspense...

[Greg Masters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each of the three novels in this series feature a 20-something African-American female jazz musician who embroils herself in getting to the bottom of anomalies in the just order of things. I remain entranced by Nanette Hays for her appetites in the delights available – whether that's the best of jazz music, fine wine and decent men – or the solving of mysteries. The writing through all three volumes is savory, like our protagonist, enlivening the characters and illuminating the streets, swell clubs and dives of Manhattan and Paris. The series is ripe for adaptation into a TV or movie series.

[leandro 𖤓 · Rating 3 out of 5]

we love a good mystery, don't we? I think it was well written. this was the first book I read by Charlotte Carter and I can say I'd love to read more. seeing the black representation be written by a black author is always good.
I think the plot was great, although it was a little bit confusing. I had to close the book and think about everything to start making sense, if you know what I mean.
it was a really fast and satisfying read.

[It'sBrynanas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It’s the first one in the series that I had read, and I was really enjoying the mystery at the heart of the book as well as the way it was told. Weird to see New York in the late 90s before the towers fell.
I wish the fourth book in the series would get published bc um excuse me IT LEAVES OFF ON A ROMANTIC CLIFF HANGER

[Don Gorman · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3). This is the third and final entry in the Nan Hayes series and it is just as solid as the first two. Nan is a big fun protagonist, and she works her way through this story in her usual slightly off kilter manner. Lots of little diversions here, but that is what is needed in such a short book. Good action, nice twists and turns, another real solid effort. Good stuff.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like with most series, the more you read the more you love the characters.
And Nanette remains a fave! I've read back-to-back books 2 & 3 (this is the third one).
I love that this is set in the early 2000's and I like that Nanette does her own thing.
But she does keep getting sucked into murder mysteries! Such a good series... more please!

[TJ Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Great Nan Mystery

The novel breezed along at a fast clip. As usual, Nan is a unique protagonist with chutzpah. She has more bravery tan good sense at times, but the reader admires her nonetheless.
The figurative language is clever in the best sense of the word.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bad luck & trouble continue to plague Nanette in this third book in the series. There’s less music this time, and more voodoo, lies, guns, and booze. A great character, an enjoyable series of interlocking mysteries, and a satisfying ending. Definitely read Coq au Vin first!

[Vernon Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly enjoyable piece of storytelling from Charlotte Carter. She has a gift for describing places(NYC this time, Paris in the last novel) making you long to visit. This is a complex, satisfying mystery, and Nan is a complex, satisfying character… here’s hoping we get more!

[joni Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Nan Hayes!

I wish there were more of this series. Nan is a powerhouse and Charlotte Carters writing is sharp, funny and propulsive. Her plots careen along. Fascinating characters!
Lots of jazz, NYC and Paris. Who could ask for more?

[Wolfgang Voigt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, real language, good story and nice athmospheric description-really liked it

[Lee Holodney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good. V emotionally involved. Main character has had it rough. Curious to learn more

[Dorothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay but hard to relate too because the plot seemed preposterous. I was attracted to the voodoo thing but it turned out not be the book I expected.

[Ruben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trilogia tancada. Molt divertida, com la resta.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

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I read this thinking it was the last one in the series but upon completion goodreads shows a fourth book called “Roosters RIFF”Is this true??? HELP. I cant find it in print or ebook or audiobook anywhere.

Drumsticks was another great rollercoaster with Nanette. Although there were some things that seemed out of place. For example, Nan’s relationship with Justin being so close kept throwing me off because they seemed to really dislike each other in the previous books.

Also, the teacher that was basically a pedophile/sexual predator??? I was not expecting that or how sympathetic Nan was to his situation.

The ending was perfect though. Throughout this series Charlotte Carter has always unraveled the mysteries so seamlessly.

[Verity W · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third and final Nanette Hayes has some familiar faces popping up as Nanette gets involved with a voodoo doll that leads to murder and then trying to solve the crime. Readable 90 crime.

[Dalila (Dee) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a present from a friend. I didn't know anything about it and had never read anything else by the same author. It took me a while to pick it up and read it but when i did I actually liked it. It's a mystery, which I love, the characters were interesting and the story wasn't particularly predictable. I later found this was part of a series and maybe I should have started with the first one. Since I liked it I may pick up the others some time.

[Iblena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esta es la mejor historia de la trilogía de Nanette Hayes, una novela de detectives en toda regla, con una Nanette más irreverente, mercurial y sarcástica a quien le sienta muy bien el rol de perdonavidas.

[Babete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boa história!

[Vlad]

It was a nice summer read. Nice writing, I enjoyed the humor.

[Ajcc]

F 813.54 CAR