Death of a Punk - John P. Browner

Book Details

Country: UK
Language: English
Genre: Crime
Publisher: Pocket Books
Publication Date: 1980



Genre: Punk
Country: UK
Real World Artists: In a 2007 online post responding to readers wondering why this out of print book cost so much (it seems to go for three and even four figure sums), Browner opines "I think it’s because it’s set in that now-famous time and place, and many of the peripheral characters seem to be based on now-famous people, although I vehemently deny that vicious canard; any resemblance to persons living, dead, or otherwise is purely coincidental and exists wholly in the fevered imaginations of certain wacky readers." Whether his tongue is in his cheek is not entirely clear, but I suspect so. He does note that he "used to hang out at CBGB’s in the early days to hear yet-to-be-signed bands like Television, The Ramones, The Talking Heads, Patti Smith, Blondie, and many other less famous ones."

Jacket Blurb: 

ZZZ. Private Work for a Fee.
Complete Discretion Assured.
Leonard Hornblower (212) 699-1848.

Lenny Hornblower. That's me. $100-a-day plus expenses. Cash up front. Remember, this isn't a licensed operation. I'll trace anything, even runaways. For them it's extra: $150 per, plus.

So when a Mrs. Perlont ("Call me Lisa.") asked me to find her Blinky, it was just another penny-ante job .. until I started nosing around the East Village puck rock scene and ran into a hot snowstorm: a cocaine heist, a hijacking ring and a know-nothing kid who knew too much to live.

With friends like his, enemies were superfluous. Blinky was a punk rocker with a one-way ticket to Disaster Street. Trouble was, he wanted to take me along for the ride. And so did his stepmom who was willing to reveal everything but what I needed if I was ever going to find the one responsible for the …

DEATH OF A PUNK.