Synopsis
December 1941: Jessica Richards, daughter of corrupt New Orleans councilman Whitman Richards, is the victim of a sensational daylight kidnapping from the grounds of a Catholic girls' academy. Richards, a man with many enemies, outrages both his wife and police Captain Frank Casey by throwing the police off the case. Is it because the kidnapper is a familiar enemy, returned to settle an old score, or has Richards faked the kidnapping to further some aim of his own? The desperate mother turns to the one person who might help her old boyfriend Wesley Farrell.
Farrell, a Creole club owner passing for white, freshly returned from a self-imposed exile to Havana, prowls the city's bars and streets, familiarizing himself with a growing list of Richards's enemies while he tries to decide which of them might have the brains and guts to stage a coup against the corrupt councilman. Meanwhile, Negro Squad Sergeant Israel Daggett searches for the sole witness to the kidnapping, young black custodian Skeeter Longbaugh, unaware that the kidnappers have sent Easter Coupi, the most feared killer in the Negro underworld, after Skeeter...
This new entry into an atmospheric, well-reviewed noir series follows Daddy's Gone A'Hunting, Blood to Drink (list as Best of 2000 by january magazine), and Pale Shadow.
Publishers Weekly
In his fifth literate, intelligent, if overly busy WWII-era noir to feature Creole nightclub owner and part-time dick Wesley Farrell (after 2001s Pale Shadow), Skinner has included enough characters to stage Aida and enough plot twists to give the conscientious reader a migraine trying to keep track of the cast. When shady New Orleans councilman Whit Richards receives a phone call from a man who addresses him as Rico, an old nickname hed rather forget, he knows hes in trouble. Richardss enemies have a foolproof scheme to get even for the truly rotten things hes done to them, though its no surprise when the bad guys best-laid plans backfire. When Richards wont cooperate with the police after his teenage daughter is kidnapped in broad daylight from her Catholic school, his wife, an old flame of Farrells, asks the Creole to find the girl. A young African-American nebbish, the only reliable witness to the kidnapping, becomes the quarry of a fearsome hired gun, Easter CoupE, easily the best character in the book. Eventually, like Joshua before Jericho, Farrell brings the walls down on them all. Skinners 1940s New Orleans underworld is effectively murky, while his period details and topical references are, as usual, pitch perfect. Established fans should be pleased, but others may find that theres not enough depth or development to care about the fates of any of the major players. (Aug. 15) FYI: Skinner is also the author of Two Guns from Harlem: The Detective Fiction of Chester Himes (1989) and other scholarly works in the mystery genre. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.