Fans of
strong female characters will want to make the acquaintance of Clementine
Baldwin. Owner and principal investigator of the Queen City Detective Agency,
Baldwin is a native of Meridian, Mississippi, and knows most of its secrets.
The daughter of a white man and a black woman, she has a love-hate relationship
with her home town. Never quite fitting into either black society or white
social circles, she has learned to navigate along the edges of both.
Set in
January 1985, against the backdrop of the approaching inauguration of Ronald
Reagan for his second term as president, Baldwin is retained by the mother of a
man convicted of shooting a local real estate developer. Mrs. Coogan is
convinced that her son was murdered despite plenteous evidence to the contrary.
The local
authorities found the death of Coogan convenient and the resolution of the
death of an unpopular real estate developer along with it, so they were
increasingly forceful with their attempts to discourage Baldwin from asking
awkward questions. Some of the best parts of the book is watching their attempts
backfire, sometimes spectacularly. Lurking in the shadows of Baldwin’s
investigation is the Dixie Mafia, that organized crime mob headquartered in
Biloxi, Mississippi, operating throughout the South with ties to the Ku Klux
Klan and the white male hierarchy.
Unexpectedly
dark in places and just as unexpectedly funny in others, this book is a strong
piece of Southern noir, highlighting as it does the push to bring new ways to
the South and the resistance offered by the long-time power structure,
unwilling to loosen its iron grip on the status quo. Followers of Ace Atkins’s Quinn
Colson books set not far away in northeastern Mississippi will want to read
this one, as will those interested in stories about people of color pushing to
force change from within the South.
Starred review from Booklist.
· Publisher: William
Morrow (August 13, 2024)
· Language: English
· Hardcover: 272 pages
· ISBN-10: 0062963589
· ISBN-13: 978-0062963581
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4dMESH1
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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