What do you think?
Rate this book
Sam Dean #2
黒い霧の街
When journalist Sam Dean probes the murder of a former childhood friend, Aston Edwards, a prominent and controversial local politician, Dean uncovers a deadly maze of political intrigue, cover-ups, private vendettas, and violence
- GenresMystery
Tankobon Hardcover
First published July 26, 1990
22 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).
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 9, 2013
I had read Phillips' first novel, Blood Rights, soon after it was released 15 years ago. I still clearly remember the impact it had on me, and I'm finally getting back to reading the rest of his books. They are formula mystery fiction, but the man can write!
One of the reason I think genre fiction is so popular (and fun) is that there are two types of people in these stories.
That's the whole conceit. If you know who the bad guy is from page one, there's not much mystery, is there? (Having said that, there are some very good mysteries in which the reader sees the killer at the very beginning; those are less formulaic and much more tricky to write, I'd think.) So it's all about who is lying about what. And as we all know, we're all lying about something, so it becomes a matter of which lies/exaggerations/omissions are lethal.
The joy in reading Mike Phillips is that all the characters are both 1s and 2s, and many of them are capable of being Bad and Evil, even though most of them are quite courteous in a very British way.
The London in these books is not Tourist London. It's the mid-suburbs, not the edges of the city where the houses and gardens are immense, but the 3rd or so ring around. These are villages that became "London" about a century or so ago, losing their character perhaps but not their layout and look. It's where successive generations of immigrants have come to settle before their upwardly mobile kids move elsewhere.
The story is about a local councilman found murdered in his car. His childhood friend begins to investigate the murder after a college-age boy is arrested on no evidence but skin color--the dead man is also black, and there are accusations that the police want to make it a black-on-black crime and sweep it under the rug.
The underlying theme of the book is cheating of every kind imaginable, from cheating on a spouse/lover to financial fiddles. It's complicated and dense and somewhat claustrophobic. These are not characters I'm likely to meet in my suburban/rural midwestern American town, but they are real people who make thoughtless mistakes and have a deep personal history which doesn't necessarily revolve around the case in point. When I read about them, I can hear them in my head, arguing and living and talking.
One of the reason I think genre fiction is so popular (and fun) is that there are two types of people in these stories.
1. Some people you recognize immediately, either because they are 'you' or because you just feel comfortable around them--you know them. They're old friends from the moment you read about them. I'm thinking Kinsey Millhone (Grafton) here.And of course, in mysteries, there are also Bad Guys. The reader knows there is a killer, presumably Bad and Evil--after all, even if the dead guy 'deserved it' someone had to pull the trigger or feed him arsenic. The Bad Guys wear a costume in which they look like 1s, or even like 2s, and they make the reader wonder which 1 (or 2) is just pretending to be normal.
2. Then there are the folks that you don't know, probably don't want to know, but who are 'interesting' for some reason: bohemian, intense, scary...whatever. They are recognizable but they don't fit in the reader's calm, rational (hah!) life. Here I'm thinking of Matt Scudder (Block).
That's the whole conceit. If you know who the bad guy is from page one, there's not much mystery, is there? (Having said that, there are some very good mysteries in which the reader sees the killer at the very beginning; those are less formulaic and much more tricky to write, I'd think.) So it's all about who is lying about what. And as we all know, we're all lying about something, so it becomes a matter of which lies/exaggerations/omissions are lethal.
The joy in reading Mike Phillips is that all the characters are both 1s and 2s, and many of them are capable of being Bad and Evil, even though most of them are quite courteous in a very British way.
The London in these books is not Tourist London. It's the mid-suburbs, not the edges of the city where the houses and gardens are immense, but the 3rd or so ring around. These are villages that became "London" about a century or so ago, losing their character perhaps but not their layout and look. It's where successive generations of immigrants have come to settle before their upwardly mobile kids move elsewhere.
The story is about a local councilman found murdered in his car. His childhood friend begins to investigate the murder after a college-age boy is arrested on no evidence but skin color--the dead man is also black, and there are accusations that the police want to make it a black-on-black crime and sweep it under the rug.
The underlying theme of the book is cheating of every kind imaginable, from cheating on a spouse/lover to financial fiddles. It's complicated and dense and somewhat claustrophobic. These are not characters I'm likely to meet in my suburban/rural midwestern American town, but they are real people who make thoughtless mistakes and have a deep personal history which doesn't necessarily revolve around the case in point. When I read about them, I can hear them in my head, arguing and living and talking.
Want to read
January 16, 2019Synopsis: a London Councillor has been murdered but why? It appears to be a Black on Black crime and the official investigation slows down.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews