Customer Reviews

Hoochie Mama

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After reading the back cover of the book and learning that Hoochie Mama featured a black female detective, I was hoping that at the very least the book would be as good as some of the old 1970s blaxploitation classics featuring Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson. I thought that maybe M Gantry would be the next Sheba Shayne or Cleopatra Jones, however, she turned out to be so much more. Rather than telling a simplistic story about a two dimensional heroine defined by sex and violence, Preston Allen presents us with a multifaceted jewel in M Gantry who is continuing her development under extreme pressure. M Gantry wrestles with issues concerning sex and sexuality while hot on the trail of a serial killer leaving half-smoked Camels butts at the scene of each crime.

Preston Allen has created a masterful mystery and thriller novel with compelling characters. His words take you by the hand and lead you into very uncomfortable places -- the minds of psychos which inhabit the pages of his Freudian nightmare. Allen uses the pages of his mystery to provide us with social commentary about hoochie mamas and sadistic fathers. He demonstrates how there can be chaos in the midst of order and makes us understand that religion in the hands of psychos can be deadly. We are left to ponder why one would kiss the dead and what prevents some people from enjoying a deep sleep.

I could not believe that I was reading such a wonderfully crafted murder mystery by an unknown black writer. This is the kind of book one expects from Thomas Harris (author of The Silence Of The Lambs) or James Patterson (author of Along Came A Spider). Who is this Preston L. Allen?!? He has given us a chilling psychological suspense thriller that should become a best selling novel. When this book is made into a movie (they would be crazy if they did not make it into a movie), I think that both Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson should be given a part. However, I wonder who Mr. Allen will suggest for the role of M Gantry?

... Then I ordered this book and read it in one night. He did it again, I kept repeating. This boy did it again. He gets into a woman's head like no male author I know. Better than Omar Tyree, EJD, and even ELH. I'm serious. I could not believe it. And this was a detective story, the kind I don't usually read. The truth is, I was not really interested in who killed who, I was like getting into Detective M Gantry, her sister, her father, her terrible childhood, and her lesbian affair with Shoneeka. HOT STUFF! That was off the chain as the young folk say. I was like, no, he did not go there! But he did. You finish a book like this, and the characters stay in your head for weeks. Months. That's how you know you've read a good book. When you read a book like this and Between Lovers by EJD, you get proud of our male writers today. They are expanding. They are brave. They are really looking at deeper issues. I love this book, HOOCHIE MAMA, and I still don't know who killed who. He promised me that he is working on the sequel to Nadine's Husaband, which he begun in Brown Sugar and the sequel to Hoochie Mama. I can't wait.

I did not expect fathers to play such an important role in a murder mystery entitled Hoochie Mama. Preston Allen sets the stage for his morality tale by asking the deeply troubling religious question: "How can the father tell us don't kill when there's all that killing in the Bible?" He then proceeds to present us with a lot of killing by deeply disturbed characters in need of a true father. In a wonderfully crafted murder mystery, Allen places a beautiful female detective, M Gantry, in the midst of an investigation involving at least "three little psychos."

Some of his psychos are possessed with demons and hear voices from a father figure. While his characters strangely quote Bible verses, we learn about child abuse, child neglect and child abandonment. Allen presents us with a surprisingly layered commentary on the social problems of absentee fathers and whorish mothers. One distrubed character points out that his mother sat in church on Sunday mornings, but had many different male lovers at night. He stated that the father saw all of her whoring through him because "He has no eyes but our eyes, no hands but our hands . . . ."

When a father does show up in Allen's novel, we see sadistic abuse, which often results in murder, as psychos state that they "must do the will of the father." One psycho sums up Allen's social commentary on fathers by stating: "If you're going to take the time to have children, then take the time to raise them."

Several self-righteous cops judge Allen's heroine as a loose woman based on her appearance despite her virgin qualities. This voluptuous, blond haired, chocolate beauty is the object of their lust but they dare not approach this karate kicking, gun carrying, top notch, homicide detective. It is through M Gantry that the murders of this chilling mystery are solved, and it is through M's father, Roscoe, that we get a glimpse of how a true father is there for his children. Ladies you will fall in love with M Gantry, however, you should get a copy of this novel for your men. This is a novel that any father who is a lover of murder mysteries should not miss.

When I went looking for a new book a few months ago, I knew I wanted something a little different, something exciting and unique. From the title, it was obvious this was going to be a bit of an unconventional book, so I bought it.

Hoochie Mama follows the life of a female detective who appears to be wild with flourescent nails and lipstick, yet she isn't afraid to be "one of the guys."

The mystery itself is absolutely excellent. For a day I took this book everywhere, I just couldn't stop reading it. The thrill is top notch and the ending is both surprising, yet it all ties in well to the clues.

The thing that struck me most about the book was the obvious talent of the author to take on a female lead character and express her every hope, fear or wish so completely. Her strength and determination are inspiring, her personality is lovable yet harsh at the appropriate times. It's a true credit to Mr. Allen's profession as an author that he's so willing to take on such a risk, while the well-known male authors of our time tend to only write about male characters.

This book is a work of intense suspense, supreme fiction and gets in some remarkable looks at life. You can't NOT read this book!

Looking for a good mystery? How about one with a black, beautiful, bold, sexy, smart Miami police detective named M. Gantry? There are lots of mysteries set in South Florida, but Preston Allen knows how to tell a story and keep you impatient to turn the page to find out what happens next.
In the great tradition of Ross McDonald and Raymond Chandler, Hoochie Mama delves deep into the dark corners of family.
This young author should be encouraged. His stories grab you by the short hairs until you cry for mercy. Mercy! Please, Mr. Allen, send us more M. Gantry.

Preston Allen is not a new comer on the Literary Scene, He has been acclaimed and received impressive awards for his works too numerous to list here, but his Hoochie Mama novel is simply fantastic: impeccable style, good plot, good characters (they come alive as you read), good development, and good FINALE!

I strongly disagree with the people who have found the book difficult to follow: perhaps is it because I couldn't put it down, so intense was the action?

Preston Allen's mastery of the English Language is also very impressive. It is so good to be able to read a well written book, without the usual spelling mistakes, inconsistencies in the characters or plot and the use of the wrong word or spelling.

Johana Smith, Author of "A Basketful of Rhymes", "101 Pet Peeves and More" and "Spiritual Warrior - Paris-"

I loved the main character and how she perservered against issues of gender and race in carrying out her duties as a homicide detective. The story was raw and realistic and the ticket for anyone who enjoys a good urban thriller. For another novel featuring a dynamic black female detective, read Cookie Cutter, by Anthony Sterling.

The cover of this book completely threw me off. I thought it was some kind of sexy ghetto girl fluff, plus I had read Allen's sex story in Brown Sugar. Boy was I surprised. Preston L. Allen can write anything. This is a very good book! I read it in one night. I couldn't put it down. I am going to tell all of my friends about it.

I grew up in Miami, so I know all of the places that Allen put the scenes in. The book tripped me out with the great style of writing and the ending. Surprised me again. I thought I knew who the killer was but I was wrong. And then ending makes sense when I go back and think about it. This looks like a book about serial killers, but it is really a book about how families need a father figure or the children (the boys especially) will grow up to be pretty bad guys.

Read this book. You will fall in love with M Gantry. I guarantee it.

Expertly crafted, thoroughly enjoyable, a page turner. Allen is a writer in top form. Murder is M Gantry's business. You kill them; she tracks you down. But it isn't so easy when the killer may just be the troubled teenaged son of the man she loves. The danger, intrigue, and mystery are as good as can be in a book, to be honest, that I bought because of the sex; you know, Allen won me last year with his very touching erotic story in that collection Brown Sugar by Carol Taylor that all the brothas and sistas thoroughly enjoyed.

I am still trying to figure this book out. I tried to read it as a page turner, but was dismayed by how much nuance was escaping me. This book is not a genre filler to be read in airports or while waiting in a doctor's office. This book does not wow the reader with a clever plot twist, compelling hooks, sex scenes, references to popular culture, or contrivances of any sort. Allen takes no short cuts in writing this book. He does not trade style, substance, and mood for slick/comfy stereotypes to ease our reading. This book wows us with honest innovation on every line, a freshness that is both welcome and daunting. M Gantry is not a stereotype of anything you have read about, she the lesbian, not lesbian cop, with the horrid hair, wastrel sister, and linear brain. "The things are not coming together in a straight line," she repeats throughout the book. Is this a metaphor for her dubious sexuality? She wishes her life could come together in a straight line, but how can it with the dead mother, ineffectual father, lesbian dreams, villainous boyfriend, and sinister new partner who, she discovers, is the cop who had sexually assaulted her when she was a minor and he was working the beat in her neighborhood. M Gantry is deliciously complex, and so the case she attempts to solve is subordinate to the reader's need to solve her. We read this so-called thriller to unravel the mystery of our protagonist. We read this book, not as a pager-turner, but as a literature of revelation and reflection. This is a good read. We turn these pages slow.