For rock and roll writer Mick Sever, another story, another deadly island paradise is all in a day's work. This time, Mick heads to Nassau, Bahamas, home of the legendary Highland Studio. Known for pumping out hits that burn up the charts, Highland is where the magic happens-or rather, where the magic happened until a devastating fire destroyed the entire studio. No one knows how the fire started, who started it-or whose body was found among the charred ruins.
Sent to get the inside story on the opening of the new Highland Studio, Mick finds this is hardly the Phoenix-rising-out-of-the-ashes story he expected. Some say the studio's haunted, some say it's cursed, but one thing is for sure: someone—or something—wants to stop the music. A smashed guitar and erased tracks send a subtle warning, but murder? That's an entirely different tune. If Mick doesn't act fast, Highland Studio, along with everything and everyone in its path, could go up in smoke. It's not always better to burn out than to fade away.
MAKE THE DRINK!
BAHAMA BURNOUT
1/2 ounce apricot brandy
1/2 ounce banana liqueur
1/2 ounce coconut rum
1 ounce dark rum
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1/4 ounce honey
1 ounce orange juice
1 ounce pineapple juice
1/4 ounce grenadine
Combine all ingredients except dark rum in a blender with 2-3 ice cubes. Pour into a wide-mouth glass. Put rum in brandy snifter and lay snifter horizontally over wide mouth glass. Light rum with a long match or torch, slowly rotating snifter as volcano of flaming rum pours into wide-mouth glass.
"Bruns's laid-back fifth mystery to feature Mick Sever (after 2008's St. Bart's Breakdown) takes the music journalist to Nassau, to cover the resurgence of the legendary Highland Recording Studios, which burned down more than a year earlier and killed someone whose remains were never identified. Owners Jonah and Rita Britt have rebuilt, but the studio's now being targeted by a troublemaker. Rita blames a ghost, possibly that of the unidentified person who died in the fire, for destroying a guitar once owned by singer Sheryl Crow. Sever is also intrigued by the Cadillac a Bahamian matron is offering for sale that supposedly belonged to Elvis Presley. When the manager of Johnny Run, a once red-hot band recording its comeback attempt at Highland, is strangled while sitting in the Cadillac, Sever turns detective. Bruns's twisted tale of rock-and-roll revenge will keep readers guessing until the end." (Mar.) —Publishers Weekly
MAKE THE DRINK!
