The Rap Factor

Book excerpt: Zulu, The Rap Factor's protagonist and Miami's hottest P.I., is badder than Shaft and gets more women into bed than James Bond. When a beautiful young rapper poised for the top of the charts is found dead in her apartment, not a mark on her perfect ebony body, Zulu is off and jamming. What ensues is fully worthy of the writer who has been praised by Vanity Fair for his "cool, stylish puzzlers" and by the Los Angeles Times as one capable of "four-star pop entertainment." "This novel has gas, written in the mile-a-minute, rat-a-tat style of rap. [Delacorta] mixes John D. McDonald, Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spillane, along with a healthy dose of wit and pure fun, and comes up with one of the best reads of the summer." -- The Washington Post Book World