When Black private eye Ivan Monk takes on a case in a housing project in South Los Angeles, he finds himself facing off with corrupt police and gang members—and indicted for murder.
Heat is building in the Rancho Tajuata Housing Projects—and not just because it's summer in L.A. When a Mexican family is killed by a firebombing, local rage threatens to grow out of control. The pressure is on to solve this case quickly to help deescalate the tense situation.
At the request of the tenant's security force, P.I. Ivan Monk is called in to find the killer. To track the murderer down, Monk must delve into a tangled history leading all the way back to the 1965 Watts riots—a hunt that reveals layers of buried racism and corruption. Monk sorts through the complexities of gang conflicts and governmental kickbacks, only to find himself at odds with the police, disillusioned by his mentor and, after a fierce struggle with some gang members, under indictment for murder. Monk must race to clear his name before time runs out, and a bad night falls on the Rancho Tajuata Projects, this time for good . . .
Praise for Bad Night Is Falling
“Bad Night Is Falling is that rare detective story with a sense of history, of the way the past shapes—and mis-shapes—the present.” —LA Weekly
“A first-rate example of contemporary noir fiction.” —The Sunday Telegraph
“Monk’s third case provides enough gritty gossip, glistering action, and trash talk to make real-life LA seem comparatively wholesome.” —Kirkus Reviews “The third Monk novel is solid hard-boiled fare that recalls the fatalistic determination of Ross McDonald's Lew Archer.” —Booklist “Phillips uses his social backdrop [in Bad Night Is Falling] not for itself or for psychological character study, but to give depth and relevance to a tight thriller.” —The List (Scotland)
“Makes you realize that politics isn’t just the domain of boring old men—whether you want it or not, inevitably it affects us all.” —Rap Pages “Bad Night Is Falling will sate the palates of faithful Ivan Monk fans, while offering an exciting, insightful trek through the mean streets of the City of Angels, often at its worst.” —Wave Entertainment
Praise for the Ivan Monk books
“In the tradition of Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op, Ivan Monk takes on a corrupt world . . . He makes us feel that the war he’s waging is for our own salvation.” —Walter Mosley, creator of the Easy Rawlins series
“A landmark novel set during and after the 1992 L.A. riots.” —The New York Times Book Review
“A crime classic.” —The Washington Post
“Tough, smart, and unabashedly political. Monk is (to paraphrase basketball star Charles Barkley) a P.I. for the ’90s, and Violent Spring is Phillips’s perfect intro to him.” —Gar Anthony Haywood, author of the Aaron Gunner mysteries
Gary Phillips has published various novels, comics, novellas, and short stories and edited or co-edited several anthologies, including the Anthony-winning The Obama Inheritance. Violent Spring, his 1993 debut, was named in 2020 one of the essential crime novels of Los Angeles. He as also a story editor on Snowfall, an FX show about crack and the CIA in 1980s South Central, where he grew up.
View titles by Gary Phillips
When Black private eye Ivan Monk takes on a case in a housing project in South Los Angeles, he finds himself facing off with corrupt police and gang members—and indicted for murder.
Heat is building in the Rancho Tajuata Housing Projects—and not just because it's summer in L.A. When a Mexican family is killed by a firebombing, local rage threatens to grow out of control. The pressure is on to solve this case quickly to help deescalate the tense situation.
At the request of the tenant's security force, P.I. Ivan Monk is called in to find the killer. To track the murderer down, Monk must delve into a tangled history leading all the way back to the 1965 Watts riots—a hunt that reveals layers of buried racism and corruption. Monk sorts through the complexities of gang conflicts and governmental kickbacks, only to find himself at odds with the police, disillusioned by his mentor and, after a fierce struggle with some gang members, under indictment for murder. Monk must race to clear his name before time runs out, and a bad night falls on the Rancho Tajuata Projects, this time for good . . .
Reviews
Praise for Bad Night Is Falling
“Bad Night Is Falling is that rare detective story with a sense of history, of the way the past shapes—and mis-shapes—the present.” —LA Weekly
“A first-rate example of contemporary noir fiction.” —The Sunday Telegraph
“Monk’s third case provides enough gritty gossip, glistering action, and trash talk to make real-life LA seem comparatively wholesome.” —Kirkus Reviews “The third Monk novel is solid hard-boiled fare that recalls the fatalistic determination of Ross McDonald's Lew Archer.” —Booklist “Phillips uses his social backdrop [in Bad Night Is Falling] not for itself or for psychological character study, but to give depth and relevance to a tight thriller.” —The List (Scotland)
“Makes you realize that politics isn’t just the domain of boring old men—whether you want it or not, inevitably it affects us all.” —Rap Pages “Bad Night Is Falling will sate the palates of faithful Ivan Monk fans, while offering an exciting, insightful trek through the mean streets of the City of Angels, often at its worst.” —Wave Entertainment
Praise for the Ivan Monk books
“In the tradition of Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op, Ivan Monk takes on a corrupt world . . . He makes us feel that the war he’s waging is for our own salvation.” —Walter Mosley, creator of the Easy Rawlins series
“A landmark novel set during and after the 1992 L.A. riots.” —The New York Times Book Review
“A crime classic.” —The Washington Post
“Tough, smart, and unabashedly political. Monk is (to paraphrase basketball star Charles Barkley) a P.I. for the ’90s, and Violent Spring is Phillips’s perfect intro to him.” —Gar Anthony Haywood, author of the Aaron Gunner mysteries
Author
Gary Phillips has published various novels, comics, novellas, and short stories and edited or co-edited several anthologies, including the Anthony-winning The Obama Inheritance. Violent Spring, his 1993 debut, was named in 2020 one of the essential crime novels of Los Angeles. He as also a story editor on Snowfall, an FX show about crack and the CIA in 1980s South Central, where he grew up.
View titles by Gary Phillips
