Koontown Killing Kaper Kindle Edition

I highly recommend this book for everyone to read. Its a potato chip book, in that it finishes quickly as you don't want to put it down. I am not a science fiction reader; however, I was quite taken with Koontown Killing Kaper. Author Bill Campbell has a way with words and descriptions that makes the reader feel as though they are witnessing the events themselves. I was able to relate to the main character, Vee, although, I am no where near modelesque or working as a former police officer. I also appreciated that the strongest character, who had character and charisma, was a woman. Separately, the book makes you question censorship of Rap, mocking, so to speak, what the media portrays as your normal Rap artist. It has its gruesome moments, but I somehow accepted them and didn't take them for face value as I was more curious as to the result of what was going on. And many of these gruesome moments were followed by ones that make you laugh immediately. The book kept me entertained throughout and I was sad to have had it end.

Not since Mat Johnson's "Hunting In Harlem" has a book from this genre grabbed me from the very beginning and carried me to the very end at such a rapid pace. In scathing and often explicit commentary about Black urban pathology, Bill Campbell leaves no stone unturned in "Koontown Killing Kaper". From the controversial cover to its title, language, and plot devices; Campbell presents a raw illustration of today's cult-of-personality and its sanctimoniousness, and the dirty business of city politics. In "Koontown Killing Kaper" Campbell interweaves satire, elements of Sci-Fi, and noted facts about America's nasty history of experimentation on poor people and its continued marginalization of said folks, who reside in the inner-city amid chaos and violence; and tells a crazy story riddled with truths.

An embattled ex-supermodel-turned cop-turned private detective, homicidal vampire crack-babies, the effects of social engineering, thirty-year-old harried grandmothers, slain straight-A students, a busy city morgue overseen by a shady medical examiner and that runs like an industrial factory with machines performing the autopsies, labels ascribed to poor Black people by the Black elite, the posturing of hardcore rap artists [from sheltered backgrounds], intra-racial bigotry ... Campbell lays it all out on the table, splayed open like the bodies in the city morgue. Also impressive is the book's accompanying soundtrack [a novel idea... pun intended], which features catchy J Dilla-esque beats, executive produced by Triple Threat.

"Koontown Killing Kaper" was a quick and raucously funny read, but the book's bold and explicit approach to deconstructing some of the aforementioned issues may not be for everyone; but for anybody else not opposed to in-your-face satire that upends rap culture, wishy-washy church rhetoric, and politics; it's definitely a tour de force worth reading and mulling over.

Readers will be entertained by the satire in Bill Campbell's novel. They may laugh at the notion of children preparing for their own funerals, but at the same time they will be disturbed by the reality at the basis of such scenes. The novel is a fast-paced, entertaining whodunnit that also gives its readers plenty to think about when it comes to the culture of rap and hip-hop.

Singing vaginas, government-created, tentacled-eyed, organ-sucking vampire crack babies, PhD literate gangsta rappers singing about hos and b*tches. Koontown Killing Kaper may not be everyone's cup of tea and some tender souls may decide to take offense from the cover of the book to the gleeful evisceration Campbell conducts on social tropes, stereotypes, conspiracy theories and modern culture. But the point of the book is not to offend, but to entertain and, through that entertainment, to enlighten; lift up the curtain, open some eyes and, of course, to poke some none too gentle fun.

Campbell's sci-fi'ish social satire delights and surprises. Its female lead is strong, savvy and smart, while bewildered at the state of black culture around her. As she investigates the shockingly mysterious murders of a number of high profile rappers, the book rips apart the thread-worn veil of cultural "authenticity" in today's music, literature and marketing, but without sanctimony and never without wry chuckles or some good belly laughs.

Campbell's third novel twists and turns wickedly and wonderfully, and it's a rollercoaster ride I was happily unable to get off till the last page.