A Stephen Mertz Music Mystery: "Jimi After Dark"

From Stephen Mertz—

Movies often claim to be “Based on a True Story.”

My new novel, Jimi After Dark, may or may not be based on the truth.

The real-life characters in the book include the late Monika Dannemann (Jimi’s last girlfriend), the late Michael Jeffrey (Jimi’s shady manager), and the immortal Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix. The hero, Soldier, and all of the other characters are figments of the author’s imagination.

The novel was inspired by Jimi’s assertion, made to associates and his inner circle on more than one occasion, that he had been kidnapped in England by armed thugs in October, 1969 and held captive until other armed thugs came to his rescue. Jimi claimed that Mike Jeffrey was involved. I invoked Literary license in shifting this alleged incident to Jimi’s final days, which is the time frame of the novel.

I refer to the “alleged incident” because no such kidnapping was ever reported to the authorities. The skepticism Jimi’s claims invoked among those he told prompted him to soon refrain from mentioning it. Jimi’s “kidnapping” is much debated among Hendrix scholars. Debunkers have, over the years, unearthed convincing evidence that the whole scenario could well have been a drug-addled fabrication by Jimi intended to further cloud his legal problems...

Jimi After Dark is now available in ebook and trade paperback.

Notes about the author. Stephen Mertz has written first class fiction across four decades. An original writer of The Executioner action series (featuring Mack Bolan), after its creator Don Pendleton stopped writing the novels, his 1984 novel Day of Mourning is considered by most as a classic entry in the series. He created and helmed no less than two adventure series during the 1980s: M.I.A. Hunter and Cody’s Army. In the early years of the 21^st Century he moved away from his pulp beginnings to write his most ambitious and best works, including The Castro Directive, Hank & Muddy, Dragon Games, and The Korean Intercept.