It’d be impossible for Bradley Spinelli to top the suicide-themed set that Questlove did for his debut novel, Killing Williamsburg, but the B+B contributor’s latest book launch should come close. Thursday’s party for The Painted Gun, a noir mystery published by Brooklyn’s own Akashic Books, will feature a raft of burlesque stars as well as tacos from ever-expanding Dos Toros.
It makes sense that the West Coast-inspired burrito joint is on food duty: The Painted Gun is set in the Williamsburg-based author’s former hometown of San Francisco, in the late ’90s– you know, when Yahoo! stock was booming. Its hard-bitten, hard-drinking hero is David “Itchy” Crane, a journalist-turned-PI on the hunt for the mysterious Ashley, a missing artist who has a creepy talent for painting scenes straight out of Crane’s sad-sack life. (If you want to make like Itchy during the party, suck down a half dozen Jamesons.) Don’t take it from me, since I’m his editor– Publishers Weekly says Spinelli is “definitely a talent to watch,” and his latest “deftly segues from one genre to another—from hard-boiled noir to paranoid thriller, puzzle mystery (with each and every riddle logically explained), spy caper, and ultimately to something evocative of Bogart and Bacall.”
Thursday’s party at The Rosemont, in Bushwick, will also feature talents to watch– namely burlesque performers Miss Astrid, Angie Pontani, Peekaboo Pointe, and Gal Friday, plus magician and mentalist Matthew Holtzclaw. We’re told they’ll be sporting their best noir, which won’t be a stretch– one of the evening’s performers, Francine “The Lucid Dream,” is the founder of David Lynch Burlesque. Who killed Laura Palmer? Who is Ashley? Hopefully one of these questions will be answered.
A Night of Noir with Bradley Spinelli, author of “The Painted Gun,” March 9 at 7pm, 63 Montrose Ave., Bushwick; free.