Private Eyes Archives

Femme – Bill Pronzini

Bill Pronzini, Gil Brewer, noir, paperback originals, Private Eyes Comments Off

Apr 132013

Femme (2012) is one of two Nameless Detective novellas recently published by Cemetery Dance, an independent press known primarily for horror novels. It's a throwback for Pronzini to the days of the Gold Medal paperback original. Nameless meets his match in a woman who might have been appeared in any of the number of dark crime and noir novels that were the specialty of Day Keene, Bruno Fischer, and especially Gil Brewer. Pronzini has mentioned in 1001 Midnights that The Vengeful Virgin is his favorite of Brewer's books and I can see that wicked Cory Beckett might easily have been inspired by Brewer's legion of bad women who'll do anything to get what they want.

The plot is a basic find-the-man plot with Nameless hired to track down Cory's brother Kenneth who is on the lam from a robbery. As the story progresses Nameless soon learns that Cory is far from the decorous client and loving sister. She has an ulterior motive for finding Kenneth and Nameless is sure it has to do with money. But Cory wants more than just money.

For those who like their woman characters in crime fiction mean and nasty you get more bang for your buck in Cory Beckett than any other bad girl in the genre. She outdoes Phyllis Dietrichson, Cora Papadopoulos and Julie Bailey and a dozen others whose names may not so recognizable. And the final twist disparaged by some other blog reviewers I thought to be the perfect icing on this frigid monster. This is no book for feminists that's for sure. But for a quick dip into the depths of the darkest of noir you can do no better.

This was my brief contribution to a blog celebration for Grand Master Bill Pronzini who turns 70 today. I'm on the road headed home from the French Quarter Jazz Festival in New Orleans. I promised something and this may be short and sweet, but it's a review of a neat little book that I think lives up to, and in some ways surpasses, the kind of noir novel I love from the past.

Happy birthday, Bill! And keep on scribin'!

“Three at Wolfe’s Door”

classic mysteries, mysteries, mystery, Nero Wolfe, Private Eyes, Rex Stout, Short Stories Comments Off

Apr 012013

Who's that knocking at my door?

Why it's three nasty little murder cases!

First, there's the problem of the gourmet who found that the arsenic sprinkled on his appetizer really didn't agree with him at all.

Then there was the female cab driver who pulled up outside the door...with a dead body in the back seat.

And finally, there was a party for some visiting rodeo stars where a visitor died rather suddenly when somebody decided to practice a fancy rope toss that wound up around the guest's neck.

We're talking about three interesting cases for Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin in "Three at Wolfe's Door," by Rex Stout. The 1960 collection of three novellas is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the full review by clicking here.

It's worth pointing out that none of these cases which landed at Wolfe's door made Nero Wolfe particularly happy - but he wound up having to solve all of them, for a variety of reasons. After all, that deadly gourmet dinner was prepared by his own personal chef, Fritz Brenner. That cab driver showed up just as Archie had walked off the job, so Wolfe really had to get involved as well. And that deadly little party for the rodeo stars took place in the apartment of Archie's close friend, Lily Rowan, who promptly hired Wolfe to find out who had abused her hospitality.

I would argue that many of Rex Stout's novella-length mysteries are better than many of his full-length books, and I think that's the case with these three novellas. Yes, there are some better ones in other collections, but this is a thoroughly enjoyable collection displaying the talents of Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin and Rex Stout quite nicely. It seems to be available both in paper and as an e-book, and you should add it to your To Be Read pile.

“The Fingerprint”

classic mysteries, Cozies, Miss Silver, mysteries, mystery, Private Eyes, Reading Challenges Comments Off

Mar 042013

The fingerprint was the highlight of Jonathan Field's collection. He loved to tell visitors about how he got the fingerprint after a wartime bomb blast left him trapped with one other man in a bombed-out building. The other man confessed that he had committed a murder and gotten away with it. And, without the man's knowing it, Jonathan had managed to get a fingerprint from him - though he never saw the man's face and had no idea whether he had even escaped from that ruined house. But, Jonathan said, he would recognize the man's voice again - if he ever heard it.

Did that fingerprint lead to Jonathan being shot to death in his country house more than a decade later?

That's the question at the heart of "The Fingerprint," by Patricia Wentworth, featuring one of my favorite Elderly-British-Lady detectives, Miss Maud Silver. "The Fingerprint" is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the entire review by clicking here.

If you don't know Miss Silver, you're really missing a treat. She is often compared to Agatha Christie's Miss Marple - which is a little unfair to both of them. Miss Marple, after all, is an amateur sleuth. Miss Silver most decidedly is not. Miss Silver spent much of her life as a governess and school teacher. When she retired, she became a private investigator, and she has had a great many successes in tracking down dangerous criminals. Like Miss Marple, Miss Silver knits articles of clothing for the children of relatives and friends - and for much the same reason: nobody thinks twice about talking freely in the presence of an apparently harmless little old lady who is sitting nearby and knitting. That is a talent which certainly helps Miss Silver find her way to the truth in "The Fingerprint," for it is by no means a sure thing that Jonathan Field's murder had anything to do with that mysterious fingerprint specimen.

Miss Silver appeared in more than 30 books by Patricia Wentworth between her first appearance in 1928 and her last in 1961; "The Fingerprint" appeared in 1960. As such, it just makes it under the wire as another entry in the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge, in the category: Leave It to the Professionals: a book featuring cops, private eyes, secret service, professional spies, etc. Miss Silver, as the complete professional, surely falls into this category.

"The Fingerprint" is one of a number of Miss Silver mysteries now available in e-book format, although there seem to be a fair number of used copies available as well through the network of used book dealers. While I think there are better Miss Silver books - particularly the early ones - "The Fingerprint" is enjoyable.

Wolfe Comes to Baltimore

Food and Drink, General Suggestions, Nero Wolfe, Private Eyes, Rex Stout, wolfe pack Comments Off

Mar 012013

Here's an announcement from my friends at the Wolfe Pack that should be of interest to Nero Wolfe fans who live in the Baltimore-Washington area. There's a new branch...oops, sorry, this is a Wolfe orchid...a new raceme forming in the mid-Atlantic area. The group is calling itself the Mid-Atlantic and Chesapeake Area Book Raceme, surely a MACABRe name for an organization, but there you are. At any rate, they are having a general get-acquainted meetup and gathering (and, for the braver souls among you, a costume party) on Saturday afternoon, March 16, in Baltimore, and they are planning their first book discussion for April. Details at the link above.

As I've said here fairly often, I try to attend as many of the New York-area Wolfe Pack events as possible, as they are always lively and entertaining gatherings. For those who live in the Baltimore/Washington/Annapolis area, I suggest you check out the new group!

Parker, Spenser and Penzler

Edgar Awards, Modern Masters, mysteries, mystery, Private Eyes, Robert B. Parker, Spenser Comments Off

Feb 142013

No, that's not the name of a high-powered law firm. It's a summary of a book that may be a bit off the regular reading path of my visitors here. It's a collection of new essays by some of today's best writers of P.I. mysteries about another very important writer, the late Robert B. Parker, creator of the Boston P.I., Spenser. The book, "In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero", is edited by Otto Penzler, of the Mysterious Press and the Mysterious Bookshop.

Readers of this blog know that I don't write about hard-boiled P.I. books very often - they're really not my speed. But it is also undeniably true that Robert B. Parker has been tremendously influential on many of today's authors who are in what might properly be called the Hammett-Chandler-Parker tradition. The table of contents of "In Pursuit of Spenser" includes familiar names such as Ace Atkins (who has been chosen to continue the Spenser series), Lawrence Block, Dennis Lehane, Max Allan Collins, Parnell Hall and S. J. Rozan. There are essays on different aspects of Parker's skills, Spenser's character and about some of the other regulars in the series. There's a good introduction from Otto Penzler. And there's a bonus treat: "Spenser: A Profile," originally written by Parker for the Mysterious Bookshop, now available to a wider readership.

"In Pursuit of Spenser" has been nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical this year by the Mystery Writers of America. It has been published by the Smart Pop imprint of the alliteratively-named Ben Bella Books, which was kind enough to provide me with a copy for this review. If you enjoy Spenser, or if you merely want to learn more about an important author in the wider mystery field, you will enjoy this book.

FFB: The Desert Moon Mystery – Kay Cleaver Strahan

Crime Club, First Books, Kay Cleaver Strahan, Lynn McDonald, Private Eyes Comments Off

Feb 012013

This was a real discovery and I have to thank Diane Plumley over at the Bookshop Blog for including it in her eccentric Best 100 Mysteries List. Apart from The Desert Moon Mystery (1928) having the distinction of being the very first title published in Doubleday & Doran's Crime Club series I knew nothing about it. Turns out not only is it a great book (one of the best American mysteries published in the 1920s I would say) it also happens to have one of the earliest legitimate female private eyes in the genre. And it seems nobody has written a thing about her.

Lynn MacDonald belongs to the Holmesian school of inductive detectives but she's unique among private eyes in that she seeks out her cases. She approaches her clients by a letter of invitation and asks for a whopping $10,000 if she is successful. Not a bad way to make a living in the 1920s. Her first case takes her to a ranch outside of Reno, Nevada where the mysterious death of Gabrielle Canneziano and the suicide of Chad Caufield, a normally cheerful and jocular young man who served as a hired hand, has left owner Sam Stanley, his cook Mary Magin, and the rest of the guests on edge.

The Desert Moon Mystery really is a novel first and foremost; the detective story aspect only follows. Mary serves as narrator and I was impressed with Strahan's witty way of weaving into the story cooking and kitchen metaphors. A dress is described as "two shades darker than cream of tomato soup", rain falls in "drops as big as butter cookies", an egg beater image is used to convey confusion and Mary wisely notes that "love can't be measured in a pint cup." This is only a sampling of Strahan's imaginative writing. All of the characters have distinctive voices, cadences, word choices. A rare skill among novice writers and even among the most experienced of contemporary writers these days. Speaking of word choices, the entire narrative is dense and rich and the reader truly needs to pay attention to every single word. Nothing is wasted here. Nothing is ornamental or gratuitous. Every single sentence and word is intrinsic to the story. This is also something I find to be unusual in Golden Age detective novels.

Mary acts as something of a Rinehart spinster amateur sleuth for much of the book. Accidentally stumbling upon blatant clues Mary thinks aloud in the usual HIBK heroine manner. A sophisticated reader will be able to assemble those clues into a reasonable solution long before Mary or even Lynn MacDonald for the plot hinges on a creaky old detective story cliche.

Yet even with an obvious culprit and a gimmick used repeatedly in mystery novels of this era the book is a real delight. The ranch setting, the numerous puzzles, the characters -- especially the entrance of Lynn MacDonald -- and her subsequent teaming up with Mary of whom she is a little more than wary, all add up to a rewarding story. MacDonald's entrance off the only train in town is like something out of a movie. Mary is so stunned by this beautiful mysterious woman that she abandons her usual kitchen metaphors and turns instead to weather and nature imagery to describe the detective. "She looked like September morning, in our mountains -- that was the zip and the zest of her..." Her wild, orangish hair is described as trying to break free and "go floating off, on its own, to make maybe a tiny sunset cloud." MacDonald is quite a force of nature according to Mary.

MacDonald has several rules that she lays out for the residents of the Desert Moon ranch. She does not want them to discuss the case freely; she only wants her questions answered directly with little embellishment. Her methods are inscrutable. She suspects everyone. She rarely shares information until Mary proves to be her match in the detective skills department. They join forces and make a formidable team. Watching the women battle it out is rather fun.

For a first mystery novel The Desert Moon Mystery is a breathtaking accomplishment. Strahan manages to create a puzzling mystery with multiple deaths in which any one of the five main characters could be the killer. Including Mary herself. There is a point when one of the strangest characters Mrs. Ricker (who has quite a few secrets of her own) tells an outrageous story of something she witnessed and it's difficult to tell whether she's telling the truth. Later it seems that Sam Stanley may have concocted an elaborate plan to mislead and cover up what happened on the ranch. Overall, the book is impressive on so many levels.

There have been other reviews of Strahan's later works in which it appears that she cheats the reader. The Hobgoblin Murder has an unfair revelation in the final pages and Footprints has a solution that is truly baffling. So baffling that Strahan received numerous letters demanding she prove how the murderer actually did the deed. Something she never fully explained in the book and never explained to her querying fans. Nevertheless, her debut is some piece of work. If you only read one book by Kay Cleaver Strahan I suggest you read her very first and leave it at that.

Lynn MacDonald now has her own page at the Thrilling Detective website after I sent an email to Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks, Kevin, for including this early pioneer among the American private eye dames.

Talking Books and Nero Wolfe

Food and Drink, General Suggestions, mysteries, mystery, Nero Wolfe, Private Eyes, Rex Stout, wolfe pack Comments Off

Jan 252013

The Wolfe Pack, the organization of fans of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, has announced its book discussion meeting dates for 2013. Designed for fans who either live in the New York City area or who may be visiting here on those dates, the book talks are great fun, as the group works its way slowly through all the books and novellas - and then, of course, starts over again at the beginning.

The meetings are generally held at a local New York City pub, with separate checks for attendees who want to have food and/or drink. The books and dates this year:

Monday, January 28: "Method Three for Murder" and "Rodeo Murder" (the last two novellas in Three at Wolfe's Door;

Monday, March 18: Too Many Clients;

Monday, May 20: The Final Deduction;

Monday, September 16: Gambit;

Friday, December 6 (part of the annual Black Orchid weekend festivities): Book Event TBD - probably something from the novellas in Trio for Blunt Instruments.

The New England raceme of the Wolfe Pack, meanwhile, has a book discussion event planned in Acton, MA, on Sunday, March 24, discussing both Where There's a Will and Black Orchids.

You will find full details on the Wolfe Pack's website.

If you're in a position to join us for any of the events, please do so - no resrvations necessary. The discussions are lively and they are very enjoyable for any Nero Wolfe fan - and new Wolfean readers are always welcomed.

For that matter, you might consider joining the Wolfe Pack - currently, it's $35 for two years' membership, and that includes four issues of the privately-published Gazette. Check it all out at the website. Hope to see you at one of the meetings!

FFB: The Dark Light – Bart Spicer

Bart Spicer, Carney Wilde, First Books, Friday's Forgotten Books, Private Eyes, Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald Comments Off

Jan 182013

"The uneasy breath of a nasty idea kept pace with me." -- Carney Wilde in The Dark Light

For anyone who has read all the Philip Marlowe books and all the Paul Pine novels and still craves a private eye in a similar vein with more than a few nods to the great Chandler I recommend the work of Bart Spicer. His Carney Wilde is tough guy with a heart and in his debut The Dark Light (1949) is struggling to make a living at his game. Enter Deacon Andrew Jackson who wants Wilde's help in locating Matthew Kimball, the missing preacher from the Shining Light Church. As with all missing person cases in a private eye novel Wilde will face some dirty doings and a few murders along the way.

There is touch of Ross Macdonald in this first book but I'm guessing it's mere coincidence since only The Moving Target had been published by 1949. That Spicer chose to include one of the typical wealthy and morally corrupt families in this book is not all coincidence but the similarities to what Macdonald would soon be known for are. The Prentices really aren't all that bad as the story progresses but there is a creepy mother-son relationship depicted in Mrs. Prentice's devotion to her hunky son Alec. Also her daughter Alicia at first appears to be one of the many predatory females that populate private eye novels. She gets an eyeful of Wilde and wants more. So she invites herself along in Wilde's investigation by sitting in his car and refusing to leave until he starts the car and takes her with him.

I particularly liked this Chandleresque passage that comes early in the book:

I got in my car and went home for a cold bath. I lay back in the water, getting up enough interest to keep my date with Alicia. I had the courtroom stink in my nose and it didn't mix well with Alicia. The dead sourness of unwashed bodies and disinfectant and brutality and fear and the clumsy maneuvering of justice. I got out of the tub and tried to rub some of it off.

What makes Spicer's private eye different from most of the detectives of this type is that Carney Wilde is first and foremost a businessman. He's worried about his small firm and in his debut he's just learning to play the game. The entirety of Chapter 6 is devoted to his backstory in which we learn he was a member of the CID in the army who returned to work as a house detective for a department store. His former boss at that store, an astute businessman who made a killing in real estate and banking, hires Wilde as a security consultant and with that money he was able to start his own private detective firm. But the clients aren't rushing in. When they do show typically they are like Deacon Jackson, barely able to afford a day's work. But Wilde needs business and he takes what he can get. The chapter also goes into great detail outlining his work with an insurance company. It's a contact Wilde desperately needs. If he can get an insurance company as a regular client he'd have it made. He is hoping to earn some extra cash by giving testimony in a robbery case of great concern for a certain insurance company. With that money Wilde envisions buying a new car, a new office with a staff of three, and plenty more.

UK edition, (Collins, 1950)

The detection in this book is also a highlight. Unlike most private eyes who rely on intuition and guesswork Carney Wilde has the skills of a logical detective more often seen in the work of Ellery Queen. In tracking down Matthew Kimball to a Manhattan hotel he finds the illusion of a inhabited room but a few odd elements that make him suspect Kimball was never in the room. Chief among those clues are a radio speech without the changes he made on the original and a pair of eyeglasses with an old prescription. Combining these finds with some astute questioning of Deacon Jackson and the staff of Kimball's optometry store Wilde is faced with the fact that an impostor checked into the hotel.

What begins as a simple missing persons case soon becomes almost more than Wilde can handle. He finds himself enlisting the aid of his old army buddy who also happens to be a private detective working in New York to do some legwork and save on his commuting from Pennsylvania. He also finds himself collaborating almost against his will with Lt. Grodnick who thinks Kimball will turn up alive somewhere with a woman on the side. Wilde who has a much better understanding of human nature and without ever having met Kimball knows this is the wrong read on the preacher. Wilde will end up confronting blackmailers, an angry bigot with a sexually ravenous daughter, some talkative bartenders, and a nosey landlady before he manages to put all the pieces together and stop a killer who wants to protect a deep, dark secret.

Bart Spicer as he appears on the
rear DJ panel of the 1st edition

At journey's end Spicer piles on too much melodrama in what Grodnick calls "a Philo Vance like set up" but just getting to know this detective, a wise guy with a compassionate heart, in his debut was well worth the trip. I'm ready to start on the second and third books in the series and will report back on Carney Wilde's progress in the private eye biz.

For more on Carney Wilde and Bart Spicer see the excellent info on this page at The Thrilling Detective Website.

The Carney Wilde Private Eye Novels
The Dark Light (1949)
Blues for a Prince (1950)
The Golden Door (1951)
Black Shep Run (1951)
The Long Green (1952)
The Taming of Carney Wilde (1954)
Exit, Running (1959)

Moment of Untruth – Ed Lacy

Ed Lacy, mexico, Private Eyes, sport mysteries Comments Off

Jan 092013

Touie Moore returns in a sequel of sorts to Room to Swing. Seven years have passed since his debut and he is now married to Fran who he met at the boarding house in Bingsten, Ohio. As the story opens Touie learns his wife is pregnant, but he's not as excited as she is. In fact he's not at all happy about it though he doesn't reveal this to Fran. Shortly after getting the news of his impending fatherhood he calls Ted Bailey, his former private detective partner, to plead for a side job. He's already thinking he'll need additional income when Fran has to quit her job to take care of the baby.

Hoping for nothing more complicated than a guard job on the weekend he soon learns that Ted 's private detective agency is now an "industrial investigating" firm and that Kay Robbens, the PR TV executive from Room to Swing, is Ted's partner in the firm. As it happens they need an agent to take on a job in Mexico. The primary stockholder in a chemical company that Kay is wooing for her PR firm demands Ted's agency send down a private eye immediately. After some cajoling Kay and Ted get Touie to agree to take on the job. Touie sees it as an opportunity to escape his responsibility to his pregnant wife and a chance to distract himself from the major life changing event that he faces.

When Touie arrives in Mexico he learns that the "old bag" Kay was telling him about, Grace Lupe-Varon, is actually a very young and outspoken university professor. She wants Touie to prove that he husband was murdered. She is sure that a prominent matador is behind the death. Her investigative journalist husband had uncovered something about the bullfighter's career and was threatening to expose him. When the husband died of a snake bite she was convinced it had to be a murder. Snake bite? Where did the snake come from, Touie asks? From my collection she tells him. Mrs. Lupe-Varon it turns out is a herpetologist and she has a veritable menagerie of reptiles in her home for her extensive research on snake venom and their medicinal properties.

T.V. Boardman (1965), UK 1st edition

Complicating matters is the presence of Frank Smith, a mysterious American tourist who befriends Touie based solely on the fact that they are two black men in a foreign country. Smith claims to be a writer, Touie is suspicious. Nevertheless, the two strike up a friendship as often is the case when people of similar background met up by chance in a foreign country. Smith introduces Touie to the world of bullfighting allowing him to see firsthand the artistry of matador superstar "El Indio." But when Smith seems to be following Touie in his investigation of the Lupe-Varon murder the plot takes a sinister turn. Is Smith also a private detective interested in the death of the professor's husband? There is more to Smith than meets the eye as Touie will soon learn from the Mexican police.

Moment of Untruth (1964) as the title may suggest is a mystery about bullfighting. The moment of truth as bullfighting aficionados may know is the point at which the matador makes his kill. The title is one of the biggest clues to the ultimate mystery surrounding the murder of Grace's husband. There are plenty of scenes in the bullfighting arena, lots of background on the art of being a matador and specifically the unusual habits and rituals of "El Indio."

The mystery is much better constructed than Room to Swing and the exotic background makes for a gripping, fascinating read. Though Lacy apparently disliked the idea of a series character he does a fine job of incorporating Touie's life as husband and father-to-be into the detective story plot. And there is plenty of detection and action in this private eye novel. His final adventure in Mexico will force him to make decisions about what he really wants out of his life. That decision will fully explain why he never appeared in another book or story.

Yesterday was the anniversary of Ed Lacy's death. Coincidentally, there happens to be a rise in interest about him just as I have been posting reviews on his work. You can read a tribute to Lacy in Tablet, a Jewish online magazine. Click here for the article.

FFB: Room to Swing – Ed Lacy

Ed Lacy, Edgar Awards, Friday's Forgotten Books, Private Eyes Comments Off

Jan 042013

I have a thing about the Edgar Awards. I happen to think a lot of the award winners didn't deserve that little statue of Poe. Only occasionally do I come across a truly worthy Edgar winning mystery novel. Room to Swing (1958) won the Edgar for Best Novel. It's most definitely one of the deserving winners. Not only that - it's a little known, little discussed, hardly reviewed at all, landmark novel in the history of crime fiction by a writer who deserves a lot more attention.

Toussaint Marcus Moore is a private detective hired by Kay Robbens, a TV executive, to shadow the subject of a soon to be aired reality TV show that sounds exactly like a 1950s version of "America's Most Wanted." The man, Robert Thomas, is wanted by Ohio police for a rape and assault of a teenage girl and Kay know he is currently living under an assumed name in Manhattan. Moore is to keep an eye on Thomas and make sure he doesn't leave New York until the show is aired. Then Kay hopes some TV viewer will spot Thomas, notify police, and he'll be arrested thus validating the purpose of the TV show and insuring it has a long run. But Thomas ends up dead, Moore is framed for the murder, and he flees the city. Moore is determined to clear his name, but in order to do that he needs to uncover who killed Thomas and why. He figures it's all linked to the rape case.

His travels take him to Bingston, a small Ohio town on the Kentucky border, where he holes up in a makeshift boarding house owned by one of the few black couples in town. This is good for Moore because as a black man himself with an opinionated, unguarded way of speaking he was nearly run out of town by the bigoted police officers in Bingston. He finds an ally of sorts in Frances Russell who immediately sees through his bad impression of an itinerant jazz musician. She will serve as his captive audience (and later a sometime assistant) as he tells his tale to her in a series of flashbacks.

What's most remarkable about this book is that with all its talk about race relations, its depiction of a complex black man in the 1950s fed up with being called "Boy" by nearly every white man he meets, disgusted with segregated hotels and restaurants and entire portions of cities, and "whites who can sure say the jerkiest things" is that it was written by a white Jewish New Yorker. Leonard Zinberg lived in Harlem all his life. Before creating his private detective (named after two prominent activists in Black history, I might add) Zinberg had always been interested in race relations and leftist politics. As early as 1935 he wrote a story titled "Lynch Him!" a hint at his strong feelings about the treatment of blacks. Later he wrote several stories about boxers, one of them Walk Hard, Talk Loud (1940) is the story of a black boxer and his relationship with a white woman who also happen s to be a Communist activist.

Room to Swing is a fantastic book. Well written, smart without being smart alecky, prescient and insightful in ways that make it seem like you are reading a book written only a few years old rather than decades old. The mystery is a good one if not one that has jaw dropping surprises, but what makes the book noteworthy are the well drawn characters and Zinberg's insights into black/white relations. Touie is one of the best of the earliest of the black private eyes. It's a shame he only appeared in two books.

For more on Ed Lacy I suggest you read Ed Lynskey's well written and very detailed article at Mystery*File. A review of the follow-up book The Moment of Untruth featuring Toussaint Moore in his second and last appearance in an even better constructed mystery than the one here, will be posted tomorrow. Ed Lacy is one writer I'm glad I discovered and whose books I am rapidly acquiring and reading with great interest.

Older Entries