"Viper's Dream" by Lamar immerses readers in a vivid jazz-infused world. Lamar's prose captures the energy of the music scene, but character arcs can feel predictable. The book's atmosphere shines, though at times the narrative loses its rhythm. Lamar's love for jazz is evident, and while the story has moments of allure, its execution may not fully hit all the right notes for every reader.

Franco-American writer Jake Lamar’s novel is a hard-boiled, jazz noir that plays out in Harlem from the 1930s through to the early sixties. Lamar opens in 1961, Clyde Morton known as the Viper, is holed up at the Cathouse, a jazz club owned by a controversial heiress. Clyde has three hours to flee before he’s arrested for murder, a crime that forces him to reflect on his life and his choices. Clyde first arrived in Harlem during the Great Migration, ending up as an enforcer for local gangster Mr O. Now he runs an organisation that deals in weed and has a hand in a variety of criminal activities.

Clyde’s story is also the story of the seamier side of Harlem’s past. He’s an eye witness to Harlem’s shifting, twisting history particularly its changing music scene from trad jazz to bebop and beyond. Throughout everything there are two constants, Clyde’s refusal to trade in heroin and his ill-fated obsessional love for singer Yolanda, known as Yo-Yo, the woman who’s always just out of reach. First revered, later feared, Lamar’s narrative charts Clyde the Viper’s rise and possible fall, building in cameos from real-life Harlem figures like Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonius Monk. Lamar’s compelling tale carries convincing echoes of Chester Himes and Walter Mosley. It’s a fast-paced, well-researched, atmospheric piece, although I found the final reveal in which Clyde’s forced into a reckoning with the world he left behind a little contrived and verging on melodramatic.

A mix of noir and historical fiction set in the world of jazz, featuring well plotted characters who struggle.
It's not a happy story but it's an intriguing one.
I loved the storytelling and liked the plot.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Novel set in 1940s to 1960s Harlem about an aspiring jazz musician, Viper. Realising he won't make it on the NY Jazz scene his life takes a turn when he meets some unsavory characters. Interesting plot with some good characters involving American history, drugs and murder - all centered around a love story. Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Set in the headanist days of jazz in New York it tells the story of a lone man trying to make it big and survive in a city fused with dark vibes.
Excellent story I loved the characters, pace and atmosphere the feeling of placement in this novel was well planned and imagined.