Hipster Death Rattle
Richie Narvaez

A rapidly changing Williamsburg serves as the backdrop and catalyst for this whodunit about a slasher that appears to be targeting hipsters in gory machete attacks.  

Tony "Chino" Moran works as a part-time reporter for the Williamsburg Sentinel. He loves playing petanque in the park and struggles to make rent, but clings to his beloved childhood home. Then, one night, his editor, Patrick, is brutally murdered and a wave of similar killings terrorizes the neighborhood. Tony comes to suspect the killings may be part of a more complex plot and related to an elderly women who disappeared after complaining about her landlord a year ago, and a related trip to Puerto Rico will find him staring down the barrel of a gun. 

Theories abound as to the nature of the killings: some police officers suspect the murders are gang-related. Longtime Brooklyn residents, though, view them almost as heroic: sick of being priced out of their home and watching cuchifrito stands turned into gourmet latte bistros, they notice that most of the victims are recent residents from a different economic class. 

Narvaez keeps the chapters short and the pace quick. Amidst the bloody slayings and trail of clues, he offers a vivid view of Boricua Brooklyn with frituras, sofrito, feisty (perhaps mean) abuelas, hair that can't be tamed, and a sense of resignation that Williamsburg is no longer theirs to call home. For a story with so many bodies dropping, a sense of humor still pervades this pageturner.  

A poignant and wry social commentary on a swiftly changing Brooklyn that will also keep you guessing right up until the very end. 

Richie Narvaez is a Nuyorican award-winning author. His work has appeared in Latin@ Rising: An Anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Long Island Noir, Mississippi Review, and Tiny Crimes: Very Short Tales of Mystery and Murder, among others. He served as chapter president of the Mystery Writers of America, New York Chapter, for two years, and on the MWA national board. He recently served as the Morris Park Artist in Residence in the Bronx and judged the 2019 PEN Open Book Awards. Hipster Death Rattle is his debut novel. 

Hipster Death Rattle is publication by Down & Out Books. Click here to purchase.
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Reviewed by
Elliott Turner​
​7/31/2019

Elliott Turner's fiction has appeared in Apogee Journal, Transect Mag, Vol. 1: Brooklyn, Azahares, Barren Magazine, & countless others. His debut novel, The Night of the Virgin, was an Int'l Latino Book Award finalist. He is a contributing editor at Latino Book Review and lives in Texas.

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