FM rock deejay and private investigator Rick Shannon is back in a big way in the second novel of a series that began with the rollicking Radio Activity.
Highway 61 Resurfaced kicks off when a woman named Lollie Woolfolk sashays into the offices of Rockin' Vestigations and says she wants to find her long lost granddaddy, blues producer Tucker Woolfolk. Before it's over, Rick Shannon has crisscrossed the sweltering Mississippi Delta in search of the thread that connects a dead man in Yazoo City found with a fork stuck in his back to an old man known as Pigfoot Morgan who was just released from Mississippi State Penitentiary after serving fifty years for murder. Further complicating matters is the lovesick Crail Pitts, onetime Ole Miss football star who is driving around the Magnolia State with a noisy lawyer in his trunk, and Cuffie LeFleur, one of four generations of a cotton dynasty that may be on its last legs. In the end, everything points to one of the great mysteries in blues lore: whether Blind Buddy Cotton, Crippled Willie Jefferson, and Crazy Earl Tate ever recorded together. When Rick starts a rumor that he's found the tapes from the legendary Blind, Crippled, and Crazy sessions, a killer is sent to collect them and Rick starts singing the PI blues.
Some fine characterization helps offset an overly complicated plot in Fitzhugh's second mystery to star veteran disc jockey and rookie PI Rick Shannon (after 2004's Radio Activity). Now working at a radio station in Vicksburg, Miss. (and more into old blues than rock), Rick also heads Rockin'Vestigations, to which an attractive young woman who calls herself Lollie Woolfolk applies for help in finding her missing grandfather, Tucker Woolfolk, an old-time record producer. When Rick discovers Tucker dead, he has a murder case on his hands. Then Lollie disappears, and another gal claiming to be Lollie Woolfolk turns up. The eccentric, mostly elderly cast includes the members of the blues group BCC (short for Blind, Crippled and Crazy); a pill-crazy killer; a crooked, prejudiced and big-bellied white sheriff; and an innocent black man released from jail after doing 50 years for murder and ready for revenge. Providing comic relief is a sickly alley cat Rick befriends. A search for the old tape of a legendary blues session by BCC generates some suspense, even if its fate remains unclear. Fans of Radio Activity may be disappointed that Rick's detective work leaves him so little time behind the mike. Agent, Jimmy Vines. Author tour. (Apr. 12)
Bill Fitzhugh was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. He has also lived in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Seattle, Washington, and Los Angeles. He writes satiric crime novels, the occasional comic mystery, and a weekly show for the Deep Tracks channel of Sirius-XM Satellite Radio.
Two of his novels, Pest Control and Cross Dressing have been in development at Warner Brothers and Universal Studios respectively for nearly a decade. Imagine how good they'll be when they're done. Cross Dressing was nominated for the Barry Award as well as the Salt Lake County Library System's Reader's Choice Award and it won the 2002 Best Fiction award from the Mississippi Library Association.
Pest Control was one of Amazon's Top 50 Mysteries in 1997.
The Organ Grinders, which the Washington Post Book Review called, 'A laugh out loud read [and] an awe-inspiring feat' is a tender exploration of the feasibility and genetic implications of human gonad transplants, among other things. As Booklist pointed out, 'It's not easy walking the tightrope between medical thrillers a la Crichton and absurdist black comedy in the Hiaasen mold, but Fitzhugh manages it smoothly.'
One of Bill's proudest moments was when the brilliant and hysterically funny Molly Ivins wrote in one of her columns, 'Bill Fitzhugh is a seriously funny guy...The Organ Grinders is hilarious, but it can also make you gasp with horror... and the humor is completely off-the-wall.'
Reviewing his award winning novel, Fender Benders, The New York Times said, 'Fitzhugh is a strange and deadly amalgam of screenwriter and comic novelist and his facility and wit, and his taste for the perverse, put him in a league with Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard.' Fender Benders won The Lefty Award for best humorous novel of 2001. Kinky Friedman himself said Fender Benders is 'Wickedly, irredeemable funny [and] wise beyond words and music. Fitzhugh has nailed the truest depiction of Nashville since Hank went to Jesus."
Fitzhugh's fifth novel was the political satire, Heart Seizure. Former Texas governor Ann Richards said 'Fitzhugh can spin a story and skewer a politician better than just about anyone I know.' As if that wasn't enough, the good folks at the Sunday Oklahoman called it, 'A wickedly outrageous satire that takes on the federal government, the media, and today's health care system with precise and scathing wit.'
Radio Activity, the first of a comic mystery series featuring classic rock deejay Rick Shannon, was published in April 2004. Jill Conner Browne, the Boss Sweet Potato Queen herownself said, 'Bill Fitzhugh is the only mystery writer I ever really loved.'
The second novel in this series, Highway 61 Resurfaced, was published in April 2005. Unable to control himself after reading it, Carl Hiaasen said, 'Bill Fitzhugh is a deeply disturbed individual who uses his warped talents to write very funny novels, the latest being Highway 61 Resurfaced. You will seriously dig this book if you like classic rock, Southern blues, clever mysteries and cats with loathsome sinus infections.'
Fitzhugh, a one-time FM rock deejay, also writes, produces, and hosts a weekly show on Sirius-XM Satellite Radio's Deep Tracks channel called 'Fitzhugh's All Hand Mixed Vinyl.' It's a weekly dose of nostalgia for anyone who grew up listening to FM rock radio before the consultants took over. Great segues, mixes, and mash-ups the way we used to do 'em.
Fitzhugh, whose books have been translated into German, Japanese, and Italian, Spanish, and Romanian lives in Los Angeles with his wife and his record collection. He has completed The Exterminators, the sequel to Pest Control, which will be published in 2011.
This review is from: Highway 61 Resurfaced: A Novel (Hardcover)
Highway 61 Resurfaced features the return of Rick Shannon, the rockin' P.I. Shannon is a classic rock DJ by trade, but recent notoriety has prompted him to get his private investigator's license. When Lollie Woodfolk hires him to find her grandfather, Rick figures it will be another simple case. The man in question turns up dead and his client turns out to be an imposter. In steps the real Lollie Woodfolk, who hires Rick to find out who killed her Grandfather and why.
This novel finds Fitzhugh in classic form as he provides a solid mystery filled the kinds of odd, colorful characters fans have come to expect from the author. I found 61 to be more down to earth than some of Bill's previous work. His portrayal of Rick and Lollie's blossoming romance was fun and kind of sweet, He has an amazing knowledge of music and uses it to mix real history with fiction with great success.
Some fans of the author's more insane work may be disappointed by the more down to earth flavor here, but Bill still provides a supporting cast of bizarre folk and there is still more than enough weirdness to go around. I can see great success for the Rick Shannon series. I highly recommend both 61 Resurfaced as well as it predecessor, Radio Activity.
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This review is from: Highway 61 Resurfaced: A Novel (Hardcover)
Historical only when the main character is discussing rock and roll or the blues. Otherwise this is funny fiction with a good mystery. Bill has stepped up a notch in that the content is more fluid than his first books. Not that I'm not eager to read them all again, I am.
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This review is from: Highway 61 Resurfaced: A Novel (Hardcover)
I loved this book. Fitzhugh has a remarkable ear for the South and is a talented dialect writer. Combine that with his tradmark wacky humor, his knowledge of music (with an emphasis on Blues and Rock), and a satifying solution to the mystery. These all add up to another wonderful read. I especially like the way Fitzhugh portrays Southern racism, with an emphasis on the 50's and 60's. The author doesn't preach or beat us over the head with a PC stick. Rather he shows the world to us through characters and their actions, allowing us to draw our own conclusions.
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