LOW END presents a creative, if fictional business solution to this dilemma. The action centers around Gary Morrissey, a Baby Boomer and musician with a history of substance abuse who learns that a fellow musician, Devon Jones, has been murdered. Life in the Big City is often violent, but Devon apparently had evidence tying a large-scale drug empire to the Federal Government.
Are Devon’s suspicions firmly grounded on fact or are they merely a byproduct of his drug use? One way or the other, Devon is dead. Gary realizes that while the proposed motive may be off-base, something had to have cost Devon his life.
LOW END is written in the style of the great 1930’s and 1940’s Mystery Noire authors. Think Raymond Chandler dealing with drugs and Rock n’ Roll. Author Harry G. Pellegrin brings his experience as a New Yorker and musician to his novel.
LOW END includes a foreword by Donal Gallagher, the brother of the late legendary blues guitarist Rory Gallagher
What the Critics have said:
“LOW END works as a rough-edged sort of cozy, with a reluctant amateur sleuth trapped in dangerous circumstances. The story winds its way through a darkly beautiful urban setting, informed by the tastes and smells of New York.
Morrissey is a complex, compelling protagonist. He's been beaten numb by his life, and when he wakes up, he doesn't like what he finds. The reader becomes aware of Morrissey's dark side as the character reaches a similar epiphany, a neat trick accomplished in a single scene involving an observed incident of domestic violence. The scene is galvanizing, a fine piece of thematic writing.
I enjoyed this novel. The author's behind-the-scenes look at the music world is authentic, and appropriately low-rent. The conclusion is bittersweet and ambivalent. Like the very best genre fiction, LOW END takes the reader to a world they seldom see, riding the tight strings of a good story.”
-- Brian Kaufman, Author of The Breach
“Mr. Pellegrin does a great job of giving the readers several different possible plots and suspects, without giving away the ending ahead of time. This is something that is rare today.”
--Jen Oliver, MyShelf.com Reviews
About the Author:
Harry was born in the Bronx in 1957. As a very young child, he was anxious to start school, and had learned to read at a very early age. Formal education began in 1962 at PS 87 on Bussing Avenue in the Bronx. He attended Mount St. Michael Academy in the Bronx. After graduating high school in 1974, he began studying music at the college level when he enrolled at Bronx Community College. Two years later he transferred to the prestigious Mannes College of Music in Manhattan, earning a BA in what he often calls museum music.
Music and literature occupied his mind from the earliest cognizant thought. He began piano lessons at the age of five but had switched to bass at thirteen and guitar soon after. During his time at Mount St. Michael Academy, Harry decided to study music seriously--make it his life's vocation. First studies were undertaken with well-known bass player Larry Silvestro.
After college, Harry plunged back into his first love--rock n' roll--and joined a bar band that eventually became a local phenomenon--if not a huge financial success. After the end of his first marriage, he became more involved in studio work until a near-fatal car accident left him unable to play guitar. With one form of creative expression momentarily removed from his life, he began writing in earnest.
He has written for periodicals ranging from Soundboard: The Journal of the Guitar Foundation of America and The Horse: Backstreet Choppers. Never one to categorize or pigeonhole creativity, he speaks the names of his personal heroes and the masters—Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and Rory Gallagher—in the same breath. To him, all forms of artistic expression stem from the same need to express a thought or emotion.
LOW END, his second novel—though first published—is based, in part, on actual events.
Many of the author’s friends and acquaintances fill the pages with genuine personality and dialogue. Of course, the main plot is fictional, but Harry felt that by using real places, events and personalities, the story would seem more like historical narrative than a tall tale. The sequel to Low End is currently in progress.
With his marriage in 1993, Harry left the city of his youth. Harry, his wife Elaine, and their two daughters, Veronica and Amanda, now live in rural upstate New York and when not riding his motorcycle, he occupies himself performing with a band and writing.
LOW END Copyright 2003 ISBN 1589820746 American Book Publishing
For information contact PAB Group at information@pellegrinlowend.com
No comments:
Post a Comment