Down And Dirty: Another Landlord's Tale [Paperback]

Gammy Singer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Harlem landlord Amos Brown is back in Singer's follow-up to A Landlord's Tale. It's Christmastime, 1980 and Brown is trying to protect his corner of Harlem while the crack epidemic takes hold an as-yet-unnamed disease cuts down the city's gay population and a loon guns down John Lennon. While raising funds at a poker game, Brown gets a call to bail out his mentor Deacon Steadwell, in jail for the stabbing death of a pimp. Steadwell may be a career thief, but Brown knows he's no murderer. While attempting to exonerate Steadwell, Brown uncovers a plot that ties together stolen furs with stolen diamonds, a prominent Harlem brothel and the Russian mafia. Singer paints a vivid and gritty picture of vintage Harlem: there are neither angels nor saints and appearances are usually deceiving. In the end, this is a convincing love story about Brown's neighborhood. Readers of urban fiction will appreciate the snappy pacing and compromised characters.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Amos Brown, an ex-con turned landlord, is entangled in the eccentricities of his tenants, friends, and foes. He gets involved in a scandal when Steadwell, a mentor from his days in the streets, interrupts a poker game. Steadwell calls from jail, hysterical because he has been framed for the murder of Dap Jones, a local thief. Amos is determined to help his friend and calls on Prince, a lawyer who owes him a favor. His gay tenant and neighbor, Wilbur, has been guardian to sickly, six-year-old Josephine since her mother, Patty, abandoned her while strung out on drugs. When Patty returns, threatening to take back her daughter, Amos becomes vested in Josephine's well--being. His former lover, Catherine, is the niece of a powerful Harlem gangster named Harry. At Harry's funeral, his chief lieutenant, Basil, is recognized as the heir apparent to his enterprise. Amos masterfully handles everyone's situation, and Singer leaves us wanting to know more. Lillian Lewis
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Kensington (March 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758208952
• ISBN-13: 978-0758208958
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,544,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've only recently become a writer, so the world of writing and the writers that inhabit that world are pretty fascinating to me. I am in awe everyday at the productivity and creativity I see--there's magic everywhere. How did I become a writer? I went back to school and got a Masters Degree in writing from Seton Hill University, located in Greensburg, PA. They had a program which worked for me. Before I left the school I had acquired an agent and a two book-deal. My first novel, A Landlord's Tale, has been optioned by Laurence Fishburne's Gypsy Cinema Productions. My goal is to write a book a year, although, because I'm behind, I intend to get two books finished this year. My friends and some readers will like that cuz they keep asking for yet another landlord's tale. It takes them a day or two--maybe a week tops to read my novels--but it takes me a year to write one. Is that skewed, or what?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Down and Dirty by Gammy L. Singer: An PeoplewholoveGoodBooks Review, March 3, 2006

By 

Shay C (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Down And Dirty: Another Landlord's Tale (Paperback)

Amos Brown is back!! Amos, now settled in his life as the landlord and done with his life of crime is about to get more than he bargained for after agreeing to help out an old friend. When Deacon Steadwell calls Amos from jail asking for bail money, Amos doesn't think twice about putting up his brownstones to get him out even if Deacon is accused of murdering a pimp. But Deacon hasn't told Amos the whole story and things quickly go from bad to worse when Deacon turns up missing and Amos has to find him or risk losing the money he has put up. Soon Amos finds himself in danger and has to resort to his old ways to find out who is after him and why. If that isn't enough to deal with, one of his beloved tenants Wilbur may be dying and in danger of losing the child he took in when her mother disappeared. Down and Dirty picks up where A Landlord's Tale left off, it is refreshing to read a sequel where you catch up on the old characters as well as meet new ones. If you liked A Landlord's Tale, you will love Down and Dirty! Down and Dirty is for those of you who love mystery and suspense with a touch of old-school flavor. It is a fast-paced read that will grab your attention from beginning to end! I give this book 4 1/2 stars. Reviewed by Shay C of PeoplewholoveGoodBooks

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Urban Noir, April 8, 2006

By 

Patrick Picciarelli "Author: THE POP LINE (Ha... (Pittsburgh. PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Down And Dirty: Another Landlord's Tale (Paperback)

I've awaited Ms. Singer's latest with great anticipation after reading her first book, "A Landlord's Tale" last year and the wait was worth it. Amos Brown's first outing was superb, a combination of gritty noir, mystery, and thriller. This time out Amos is even further developed as a character and Ms. Singer is doing what every series author should do: allowing her protagonist to change so the reader gets to know him a bit better. Some authors think this risky (Robert B. Parker's Spenser has remained the same person he was since the first book was written over twenty-five years ago) because if it ain't broke why fix it? A writer with less skill than Ms. Singer might fear alienating her readership with a broader character who has history.

In this book Amos seems more compasionate, yet just as driven as he was in the first book. The dialogue is perfect. I was a cop in Harlem for many years and this book captures the neighborhood expertly.

I highly recommend this book. You'll get hooked on Amos Brown and his retinue of colorful friends and enemies, not to mention the fast pacing and strolling through urban history at the inception of the AIDS epidemic and the drug-fuled 80s.

4.0 out of 5 stars Let's Do it Again!, March 15, 2006

By 

Dera R Williams (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Down And Dirty: Another Landlord's Tale (Paperback)

We met Amos Brown in A Landlord's Tale, Gammy Singer's debut. Now she is back on another roller coaster ride with the sequel in Down and Dirty. Some of the same players are back including his tenants, Wilbur, the drag queen, Winnie and Patty.

It is four years later, in the midst of the Christmas season of 1980 but the "Harlem Don", as he has come to be known, is not feeling very merry. He had purchased yet another brownstone that came stocked with a bunch of freeloader renters, thereby he finds himself reverting back to his old ways of gambling to make ends meet. This time of year brings up feelings of loneliness and he cannot help thinking of the one he let get away. Unable to make a commitment to happily every after, Catherine had broken things off but Amos now thinks he was a fool. As it turns out their paths cross again when Catherine's drug dealer/crime kingpin uncle Harry dies, leaving her the bulk of his "estate." But there are those who would like to get a hold of Harry's property. But Amos has bigger problems when his old friend and mentor, Deacon Steadwell is arrested for the murder of Dap Jones, a well-known thief and scoundrel. Amos' main focus now is to get Steadwell, himself a thief, out of this mess.

This is not an easy feat as Amos must battle Russian mobsters, venture into the underground world of the homeless culture and associate with an assortment of unsavory characters including prostitutes, card sharks and a slimy attorney. Singer wields her pen in this urban tale whipping out gritty action, laugh out loud characters and a landscape that is Harlem's own claim to fame. Her descriptions are colored with metaphors and similes that draw the reader into the action. "Raw sounds vomited from his mouth-his pain flowed like molten steel across the room and seared me deeply, charring my soul." (pg 155) Told in the first person voice of Amos, the author puts one in both the psyche and physical characteristics of the man and the social issues of early 1980s New York. The early days of AIDS, then called the Gay Men's Cancer, hits close to home as well as the drug culture. Amos loves his Harlem and he makes no excuses for its eccentricity, its multi-cultural cast of citizens and their way of life even as he contemplates leaving. This is urban fiction at its best and should not be missed. As the song of that era says, let's do it again.

Dera Williams
APOOO BookClub