SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD

SLEEP WHEN I’M DEAD is a classic Boston based murder mystery that continues where DEAD MEN TALK left off.  It is the further adventures of Private Investigator and ex-cop Jack Kelly.  This time Kelly is exposed to a more depraved side of the cutthroat business of the cheap detective.  A story of greed and lust set against a backdrop of blues, jazz music, and the incredibly rich and dirt poor Boston neighborhoods.  As is usual with Jack Kelly, the bodies start to pile up.  And as always, the salty and sometimes deeply philosophical dialogues pierce the mind and heart.  But this time a young girl’s life is held in a death trap and her time is running out.

In this action-packed thriller, Kelly and his cast of characters, Lieutenant Jessica Paris, Willie Crawford, The Musician, and the Soul Brothers, utilize some classic hard-nosed police work to uncover a sinister plot involving multiple murders and a fortune of oceanic proportions.  And there are sharks in the water.

This bold modern day mystery is cutting edge, both fast and irreverently funny.  It reads like a fresh and brazen film noir and will translate well to film.  Johnny Barnes was a private investigator in Boston for 11 years and has been a cop for the last 15.

Born in New Bedford, Mass., where Johnny lives on his sailboat, the author attended boarding school in the Berkshires where he sang and played weekends in a blues band in New York City.  He attended UMass-Dartmouth and moved to Boston where he drove a taxicab, attended Berklee School of Music, and put himself through Harvard Extension School majoring in Philosophy.

Johnny Barnes sang and played guitar in all of the famous nightclubs in Boston with many of rock & roll’s legends, producing and releasing a dozen records and CD’s.  Local airplay and intense record company interest led to a hit song in England and work with legendary producer, Jimmy Miller (The Rolling Stones, Blind Faith with Eric Clapton, Traffic with Steve Winwood.)  Barnes moonlighted, helping manage Boston’s largest live music nightclub, The Channel, where his band opened for numerous major acts through the 80’s and 90’s.

Johnny Barnes was a paralegal investigator for many law firms, and an operative and operations manager for Boston area detective agencies.  Johnny worked for the Mass. Legal Services, the Mass. ACLU, and was a subcontract homicide investigator for the state’s Committee for Public Counsel.  Since 1991 Barnes has been a full time Police Officer, an FBI trained hostage negotiator, and a detective.

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