When jazz journalist Virginia Farrell interviews reclusive singer Betty Brown, Betty shows Virginia priceless tapes from the legendary 1957 Thelonious Monk-John Coltrane gig at the Five Spot. Betty asks Virginia to get the tapes to their rightful owners, and Virginia promises to help. When Betty is found dead, Virginia decides to investigate. In the spirit of Nancy Drew, Virginia enlists her six-foot blonde roommate Socks to scrutinize the various suspects: Joe Pascoe, the semi-lecherous photographer who saw Betty Brown the day she died, Bassinger Ffowlkes, Virginia's mildly sociopathic editor, and Mortimer Bartescue, a journalist with a John Coltrane obsession. Also on the case is Detective Robert Smith from the Hoboken Police Department, together with his partner, self-proclaimed ladies' man Tony Oliveto. Detective Smith becomes distracted by an unsolved murder that might be related to Betty Brown's death, as well as an undeniable attraction to Virginia. A jazz mystery with a dash of romance, Dashiki brings the reader inside the fascinating world of jazz: the musicians, the journalists, the photographers, the scholars, and the fanatics.