Page Updated: 16/11/98
Gary Phillips
Gary Phillips
About the Author
Bibliography
Perdition USAPerdition USA
Violent SpringViolent Spring


British Pbk Original - No Exit Press
Perdition USA
Hired for next-to-nothing by an unwed teenage mother, LA Private Eye Ivan Monk assumes little can be done to find the killers of petty thief Scatterboy Williams. But more young men are gunned down, and Monk, sheriff's deputies, and members of a community in need of hope are now looking for a serial killer with a bleached face. Events take the detective to Perdition, a town in the Pacific Northwest, where he encounters a crucible of skinhead activity.
Then a white's rights rally leads to a riot. Amid the chaos Monk uncovers larger political machinations which take him back to LA to confront manipulators willing to destroy any who stand in the way of their cause.
'Ivan Monk makes a magnificent return in Gary Phillips's Perdition USA. Phillips creates a harrowing, deft portrayal of post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, capturing its people, its mood, and its language with a skill so keen that he verges on sleight-of-hand. You won't be able to put this book down. You won't dare' - Wendy Hornsby
'In the tradition of Hammett's Continental Op, Ivan Monk takes on a corrupt world. He's ready to go down fighting and he makes us feel that the war he's waging is for our own salvation. It takes a certain kind of hard-boiled hero ... Ivan Monk is that hero' Walter Mosley
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British Pbk Original - No Exit Press (1997)
Violent Spring
See Review by Frank Brown
First British Publication
In the wake of the Rodney King beating and the subsequent riots, L.A. is a racial tinderbox. When the body of a murdered Korean shop owner is discovered during the ground-breaking ceremony of what is intended to be part of the city's healing process, private eye, Ivan Monk gets involved in the case. Given the prevailing atmosphere, everyone assumes a racial motive but as Monk probes deeper it seems like greed is nearer the mark. Monk meets resistance on all sides - the Korean Merchants Association, the FBI, the LAPD and an assortment of street gangs. So many of the ethnic groups outside the power structure are interdependent and would be strong united - yet they resent each others presence and it is in the interest of those on top to keep the disparate groups squabbling. This is the milieu in which Monk works - perceived one minute as an Uncle Tom and the next as a militant black agitator. But in the end he perseveres to a bloody conclusion in which the only colour that matters is the green of cold hard cash. Violent Spring will commence filming in 1998, starring Laurence Fishburne.
'Every sort of person that the world has to offer has his, or her, enclave in Los Angeles. Every race, religion, ideology, personality disorder, and passion has a foothold there. The diversity is dizzying and it takes a special kind of hard-boiled hero to keep his footing while negotiating those fast-paced streets.
'Ivan Monk is that hero. He's seen too much to think he's seen everything. He's hurt too much not to be moved when he witnesses pain. Monk knows that it's already too late when he's been called. All he can do is put together the pieces so we can see the decay that our world has suffered.
'In the tradition of Hammett's Continental Op, Ivan Monk takes on a corrupt world. He's ready to go down fighting, and he makes us feel the war he's waging is for our own salvation' Walter Mosley
'Enlightening… hard-boiled… a bloody conclusion.' Kirkus Reviews
'Ivan Monk traverses the terrain of the boosters and mercenaries who run Blade Runnerville. He is an unbowed post-modern protagonist, who with brains and brawn confronts this Hobbesian universe in his quest for the answers. Violent Spring peels away the studded rind of the golden orange, exposing its bete noire core' Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz
'Interesting, lively dialogue, strong characters… shows how racism is used as a means of social control.' Portland Alliance
'A welcome read… intelligence, political sensibilities, and street smarts. Straight-to-the-point narrative.' Quarterly Black Review of Books
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About The Author
Gary Phillips was born in the same year that Uncle Walt opened Disneyland but found that life was no ride through Mickey's Magic Kingdom growing up in South Central L.A. He has been a community activist around the issues of police abuse and tenant's rights for over 22 years. Along the way he has been a union organiser, printer, graphic designer and taught incarcerated youth. He is currently a Project Director at the MultiCultural Collaborative, a group brought together in post uprising L.A. that provides support to under-served communities. He sits on the board of the Black Awareness Community Development Organisation (BACDO) begun by African-American ex-prisoners to halt the runaway recidivism rate and work with at-risk youth.
Gary Phillips has also published mystery short stories and has one collected in Spooks, Spies and Private Eyes

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Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

  • Perdition USA (No Exit Press Pbk, 1998) (Ivan Monk)
  • Violent Spring (No Exit Press Pbk, 1997) (Ivan Monk)

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