THE DEADLY DOOWOP

A Red Trevorak Mystery

By Charles Deemer

 

 

Los Angeles, 1954.  Red Trevorak is a 300-pound playwright who makes a living as a gofer in his father's detective agency.  Red is hired to trace the racial background of an eccentric husband, a DJ on a radio station serving LA’s black community.  Is Lovin' Dan the Sixty-Minute Man, who lives in a glitzy suburb, really a Negro passing himself off as white? 

When Dan is murdered, Red is drawn into the fifties culture of black doo-wop music.  He also is exposed to the ruthless business practices of white record producers who take advantage of black teen singing groups, trying to position themselves for the emergence of white rock and roll.  At the same time, white parents and religious groups condemn the new teen rhythms as the Devil's music.  Red, who comes to love doo-wop, finds Dan’s killer but his victory has a personal price.

The Deadly Doowop is a tale of greed, murder and blackmail, set against the birth of rock-and-roll and the inveterate racism of the 1950s.

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