Ivan Monk
Created by Gary Phillips

One of the more interesting of the new post-Easy black eyes. Battle-weary, middle-class, fortyish IVAN MONK is the star of a series of ambitious, highly-acclaimed, politically-charged private eye novels set in contemporary Los Angeles. But Ivan isn't just some outside lonewolf P.I. spouting some vague party line ranting at "the Man." He walks it like he talks it -- he's a business man, diversified and everything -- he not only runs a one-man detective agency, but he also owns a donut shop.

It may sound like a joke at first, but it's a master stroke on Phillips' part. It shows Monk has roots in the community, it allows him to interact with people as a P.I., as a businessman, as the guy behind the counter. And everyone likes doughnuts. And Ivan's community comprises everyone, blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians. Hell, he's even dating a Japanese-American judge.

A great, though sometimes uneven, mixture of action, characters and political ideas (and ideals) make this ambitious series one to watch. Recommended.

Apparently, one of Phillips' books was optioned by HBO, whose idea it was to have Laurence Fishburne star as Monk. A script was commissioned, but as Phillips put it, "they messed it up and so now HBO ain't gonna do it." Too bad.

Gary Phillips has also written a stand-alone thriller featuring disgraced football player Zelmont Raines, and has started another series featuring Martha Chainey, an ex-showgirl now working as a courier for the mob.

Author Phillips' has also been an L.A.-based activist and community organizer for over two decades, dealing with various community empowerment issues ranging from affordable housing to the narco-industrial complex. His political and pop culture pieces have run in the L.A. Times, the L.A. Watts Times, the Baltimore Sun, the Black Scholar Journal and Rap Pages magazine, and he's made numerous television and radio appearances.

UNDER OATH

• "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."
  (Walter Mosley)
  .
• "Gary Phillips is my kind of crime writer and Ivan Monk my kind of detective. . .an unbeatable combination."
  (Sara Paretsky)

NOVELS

• Violent Spring (1994)...Buy this book
• Perdition, U.S.A. (1995)...Buy this book
• Bad Night Is Falling (1998)...Buy this book
• Only the Wicked (2000)...Buy this book
  

SHORT STORIES

• "Dead Man's Shadow" (1995, Spooks, Spies and Private Eyes)
• "Boom, Boom" (Summer 1998, New Mystery)
• "Stone Cold Killah" (1998, Blue Lightning)
• "The Desecrator" (1999, The Desecrator*)
• "53 Buick" (1999, Murder on Route 66)
• "Lowball" (Summer 2000, The Mississippi Review)
• "The Sleeping Detective" (2000, The Shamus Game)
• "Wild Thang" (2002, After Hours)
• "The Raiders" (2003, Flesh and Blood III)
• "Bring Me the Head of Osama Bin Laden" (2004, Show Business is Murder)
• "Through the Fog Softly" (2004, Monkology)
• "To Live Only to Die" (2004, Monkology)
• "The King Alfred Plan" (2004, Monkology)

COLLECTIONS

• Monkology: 13 Stories from the World of Private Eye Ivan Monk (2004)...Buy this book

ALSO OF INTEREST

• "The Cool, the Square and the Tough: The Archetypes of Black Male Characters in Mystery and Crime Fiction" (The Black Scholar; also 1999, The Desecrator*)

* This special, limited edition book was published by ASAP in 1999, and contains an Introduction by Richard Barre, "The Desecrator" short story, an essay by Gary Phillips, a bibliography of both Phillips and Barre, and illustrations by Phil Parks. There weare 150 limited copies, 26 collectors copies, and 10 pc collectors copies.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Jan Long for her lead on "The Desecrator."