Reviews

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Reviews for pink cadillac:
Rock ’n’ roll literature—a novel with all the wily literacy of a Chuck Berry song.
— David Hajdu, author of  Positively Fourth Street
The pervasive passion for music provides the novel with a steady heat.
—Kirkus Reviews
Ten pages into Pink Cadillac I was convinced that Robert Dunn knew where rock ‘n’ roll began—and that I was there with him. This is a great book, and it deserves all the attention that its namesake recording—so hot it burned up the airwaves, then disappeared for fifty years—should have received. Don’t wait fifty years to discover this book: It rocks!
—Sean Wilsey, McSweeny’s
Pink Cadillac brings both of its milieus, the present world of record collecting and its 1950s Memphis setting, to brilliantly vivid life. Dunn has a remarkable ear for the nuances of dialogue, and he never misses a note. His astonishing portrayal of Thomas “Bearcat” Jackson, as a brilliant, flawed, larger-than-life tragic hero is achingly real.
— Karen McCullough, Scribes World
Robert Dunn knows the stuff of Memphis ’55–56—the days of blues descending and rock rising, the roadhouses, radio stations, deejays, unscrupulous record label owners, and the power of the mojo. He’s taken that knowledge and transformed it into a riveting novel. I couldn’t put the book down until the truth of the record "Pink Cadillac" was revealed. Had it actually ever been recorded? If so, why did it live in legend alone? Did it hold the answer to a mystery that might’ve been best left unsolved? Buy this book. Once you begin reading, you won’t want to put it down.
—Pat Fitzgerald, Bomp Bookshelf
This book went down like a box of candy, and I was sorry when I’d finished it because it was fun to read.
— Marc Bristol, Blue Suede News
Reviews for soul cavalcade:

If the sound of Motown is more to your liking, you will like this book. Robert Dunn captures the drama of the Cavalcade's journey, the competition they must overcome to get their records played, and the racial discrimination of that era. This novel makes some music of its own, recapturing a time lost now in history by bringing its characters to life in a very entertaining story.

—Bookviews

This novel is the story of Fleur-de-Lys Records, a competitor of Motown seeking to get their first No. 1 record. As part of their plan they send a bus full of their best groups on tour around America. With everyone crowded onto the bus it is hard to keep secrets and there are secrets to be kept. Part drama, part comedy, it is a fast moving novel that keeps the reader's interest. Soul Cavalcade is a recommended read.

—Readers Preference

It's 1964, and Esme Hunter is a young woman who spent her childhood dreaming of being a singer. She finally has the chance to realize her dream when she gets an audition at Fleur-de-Lys records, but is devastated to discover that FDL can't accept anymore female artists. In a plan that seems part TWELFTH NIGHT and part I LOVE LUCY, Esme dresses up as a man and successfully auditions for the Cravattes, an all male group. Now, all the top FDL artists are heading out together on a concert tour, the Soul Cavalcade. Esme must conceal her identity from a motley group of musicians and singers all crammed together on a bus.

The success of Dunn's book lies in his ability to paint such a detailed and textured portrait of the world of 60's soul music. As he describes the tour bus, you can almost smell the stale cigarettes and feel the sagging vinyl seat beneath you. The book is the story of the tour (dates and locations are given at the beginning of each chapter), and the bus is an important character in that story, driving us along from one chapter to the next.

—Jaime Jones, Should It Be a Movie
Praise for lone star ice and fire:

L. E. Brady is a music-knowledgeable, guitar-loving blues fan and a writer who can go the distance. Her dialogue sounds like where it comes from – the heart of the blistering southland. She deals as well with the screwed up empty madness of drugs as with the mysteries of a girl singer’s heart, and tells it all with down-home soul. This is a novel that leaks passion out from all the edges, without ever veering trom the straight story-line.

     For those who love that sexy Texas flavor, and the men and women who make the music that makes the barbecue go down smooth, this is a must-read.

—Barbara Bamberger Scott, Curledup.com

First-novelist Brady writes with energy and authenticity.

—Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Cutting Time:
Music lovers will relish Dunn's incendiary ability to recreate the experience of hearing live music and his tantalizing mix of hoodoo and hot blues.
—Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist
Dunn’s knowledge and true love of the blues radiates from every page of Cutting Time. He recreates the Chicago scene of the early sixties with vivid detail, and renders his characters with compassion and insight. The plot—fueled by greed, voodoo, sex, and guitar heroics—steamrollers toward a conclusion that is both inevitable and unexpected. If you love the blues, check this one out.
— Lewis Shiner, author of  Glimpses
A heady mix of blues myth and blues nitty-gritty by a writer who knows the passions and pleasures of music from the inside.
— Michael Lydon, author of Ray Charles: Man and Music
Robert Dunn has just had Cutting Time published, and it's a good one. Taking place in Chicago in the early '60s, not only will readers smell the smoke and hear the guitar, but they will come to know the characters, the real test of a writer.       
—John Koenig, editor of Discoveries
                                       

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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