Hipster Death Rattle by Richie Narvaez

Murder is trending…

Hipsters are getting slashed to pieces in the hippest neighborhood in New York City: Williamsburg, Brooklyn. As fear and tension rise in the summer heat, police detectives Petrosino and Massoud eye local gangbangers for the crimes.

Meanwhile, slacker reporter Tony Moran and his ex-girlfriend Magaly Fernandez, pursue a cold case involving an old woman who mysteriously disappeared a year before. But the closer they all get to the truth, the closer they get to losing their heads.

Filled with a broad cast of local characters and told with sardonic wit, this fast-moving, intricately plotted story plays out against a backdrop of rapid gentrification, skyrocketing rents, and class tension, written like only a true native could.

Award-winning author Richie Narvaez took some time to discuss his debut novel HIPSTER DEATH RATTLE with The Big Thrill:

What do you hope readers will take away from this book?

I hope they have an enjoyable experience and maybe end up thinking about serious issues like gentrification and/or they get up and go to the fridge for a beer, chuckle and say, “Hey, that wasn’t too bad.”

How does this book make a contribution to the genre?

HIPSTER DEATH RATTLE plays with familiar tropes but adds a widely diverse cast of characters not usually present in crime fiction. Also, now there will be a deluge of books with “hipster” in the title, such as Gone Hipster, The Hipster with a Dragon Tattoo, and Hipster on the Train.

Was there anything new you discovered, or that surprised you, as you wrote this book?

How supportive my friends are of my writing. I thought it was an incredibly selfish imposition to ask them to beta read my drafts, and I was shy about it, but some of them were asking me if they could help me out. It was very touching, and I owe a lot of drinks.

No spoilers, but what can you tell us about your book that we won’t find in the jacket copy or the PR material?

That there is a reference to an episode of the Rod Serling TV show Night Gallery that is spot on metaphorically.

What authors or books have influenced your career as a writer, and why?

When I was writing this, I have to say Philip Kerr, whose Bernie Gunther novels I absolutely love. The way Kerr develops character and place is inspirational. He passed away last year, and it’s a great loss that we won’t have any new Bernie Gunther books. I got to meet Kerr once, by the way, and he was thoroughly unimpressed with me.

*****

Richie Narvaez was born and raised in Brooklyn. His work has been published in Latin@ Rising: An Anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Long Island Noir, Mississippi Review, Murdaland, Pilgrimage, and Tiny Crimes: Very Short Tales of Mystery and Murder, among others. His first book of short stories, Roachkiller and Other Stories, received the Spinetingler Award for Best Anthology. Hipster Death Rattle is his debut novel.

To learn more about Richie, please visit his website.